


Snakes on a plane - J2 version

by cas_desespere



Category: CW Network RPF, Supernatural RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 14:54:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 43,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4184046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cas_desespere/pseuds/cas_desespere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jensen tried to hunt down mob Boss Freddy Lehne for years now and sacrificed a lot. When they finally find a witness and he realises it's his ex Jared, he goes to his limits, to save the situation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not mine. No Money made.
> 
> Repost from my LJ. This time the last. Hope you enjoy the read.
> 
> Beta: realscape

Snakes on a plane - J2 version

Jared loved Hawaii. To imply anything else would be an outright lie. His apartment was small, the money he earned in the little computer shop he worked in wasn’t much, but he lived on the outskirts of Honolulu. The weather was almost always wonderful, it only took him ten minutes to get to the beach, and he could practice surfing as much as he wanted. Jared couldn’t be happier. At least, he’d learned to be.

He downed his morning coffee and turned away from the window, which showed nothing more than the building opposite, and leaves from the two palm trees in front of it. Jared knew coffee wasn’t the best breakfast for an athlete, but he also knew he wouldn’t go the full distance today. He still had enough time for practice, and still had a valid qualification for the Iron Man Hawaii already from Panama city/FLA. The World Series was over for him, and there were just the finals left in October. And some habits died hard.

He couldn’t help but smile. He could live with just coffee today, and water; lots of water.

Five hours later, Jared was pleasantly exhausted and on his way back. He’d accomplished the distance he’d planned on his bike, and was ready for a break. He parked his bike safely and took the last bottle of water from his back pack, wiping the sweat from his face with his bandana. It was getting hot, and was time to finish for today. AJ, his boss at the store, was expecting him at 2pm. 

Jared had just emptied his water bottle when a scream ripped through the sounds of nature and caused them to fall silent. He jumped and turned in the direction the scream had come from. For a moment he was almost paralyzed as he saw a man hanging head first from an old wooden bridge.

“Sir?...Oh my God , Sir…what…I’ll help you…just…” Jared was over there, gripping the poor man’s hand in a moment, but the man was anything but happy.

“Go away…” he rasped. 

“No…I…you need help.”

“Go away, boy…NOW.” There was the sound of an approaching car. “GO AWAY,” the man warned once more, and Jared had no other choice but to follow through. He hid behind some ferns when the car stopped and three men got out of it. Jared had to suppress a gasp when he recognized one of them.

It was a face he knew way too well, from his past as well as his present. Frederic Lehne was well known in the business world, and was a key suspect in several fraud cases, due to his rather dubious business practices. The FBI had been his heels for years, but they obviously still couldn’t prove anything, seeing he was here, and was smiling smugly at the poor man hanging from the bridge. Jared wished desperately he was somewhere else, but at the moment he wasn’t even able to move, and could only stare, horrified, at the scene in front of him. 

Lehne reached the man on the rope, and turned him so he had to face him. 

“Tstststs, Mr. public prosecutor. What do you say now? Still as cocky in you were in your precious court?”

“Fuck you, Freddy.” 

“What nice behaviour, Mr. Brown. I’m impressed. You’re a leading example of sophistication and style. That’s probably why you’re so obsessed with catching me. To tend to your overblown ego…I’m sorry, but it won’t help you here. You’ve pissed me off once too often.” A fist hit fleshy meat, and Jared clapped his hands over his mouth. The man called Brown didn’t make a sound. “Still so proud, Sterling? You just don’t want to give in, do you? Doesn’t matter. Your career ends here.” Another hit found its’ goal. This time Brown groaned. Lehne reached a hand out to one of his goons. 

The man took a gun from his belt and gave it to him. “I wanted this to be personal; as personal as your campaign against me, Sterling. I think this is personal enough.” Lane aimed the gun at Browns stomach and fired, still grinning smugly. “Hurts, doesn’t it? I wish I could draw this out a little, but I need to catch a flight.” This time the gun was aimed at Brown’s head. The man was quiet now, his breathing heavy and pained. He didn’t even flinch as the gun was aimed at his forehead. 

Jared was paralyzed. Until now, he’d thought there was a chance for this Mr. Brown; that Lehne just wanted to bring him into line and get him out of his way, but now he knew that Sterling Brown was going to die. He felt bile rise in his throat, and bit his lip to stay quiet, his whole body trembling. As the shot echoed through the woods, Jared pressed his eyes closed and prayed that he would have a chance to escape unseen. He knew only too well what happened to people on Lehnes’ ‘to do’ list. 

It was at that moment that his cell phone started ringing. 

The three men over by the dead prosecutor whipped around in his direction, and Jared started stumbling backwards, fumbling for the phone in his pocket to quiet it down. He was still hidden behind the ferns, but knew they’d registered his presence. He heard shouts as he reached his bike, but didn’t look back. Jared just mounted and rode away as fast as possible, cursing his bad luck. 

He just hoped they wouldn’t be able to find him. 

~*~

“Okay, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is what we have up ‘til now.” SAC Samantha Ferris made her usual self-confident entry to the speedily arranged meeting of their unit, which was working solely on the Lehne case. Jensen slipped a little deeper in his chair. 

They hadn’t done a very good job over the years. There was still no proof of Frederic Lehne’s involvement in any illegal business’ in LA, and instead of standing back and smiling at their inability to prove anything, the man had gotten even bolder. The death of public prosecutor, Sterling K. Brown, was the current peak of his impudent actions. No one doubted he was involved, but with their luck, there would be no proof, yet again.

Brown had pushed the investigation, had even been bold enough to connect the dots publicly, and now he was dead. Agent Ferris continued her briefing, handing out files to every agent on the team.

“Brown disappeared from his hotel in Honolulu yesterday morning around 10 am, and was found dead three hours later, in a secluded area in the woods. Hanging from a bridge, shot in the stomach and the head. We know Lehne was in Honolulu at the time, and forensic evidence points to about three persons and a heavy truck at the scene. It would be kind of typical for him. The thing with prosecutor Brown was getting personal. But…and this’s new, they’re sure there was a witness in the undergrowth.” 

That was real news. Until now, Lehne had always covered his tracks perfectly. The question was, if the witness was going to be alive long enough to be helpful. Ferris continued “They found bike tracks from someone leaving the place in a hurry, and footprints leaving in the direction the witness had obviously hidden. We haven’t got much on the witness, and to be honest, I would prefer we found him first. We all know about the web of corruption Lehne has established. It wouldn’t be the first witness he managed to find faster than we could.” 

First questions came up, and Jensen opened his folder. It contained pictures of the scene and the forensic report. Obviously the whole thing had been really personal for Lehne. Brown had been beaten and hung up head first, but on the whole he had seemingly been lucky and had been killed quickly. They had seen other victims connected to Lehne who had been tortured brutally. 

“We’ve got one important lead.” Agent Ferris declared now. “We don’t know if it helps…not everyone is registered in the DNA database, but we found this.” Samantha handed out another single picture. “That bandana seems to be pretty unique. Probably hand made. At least forensic thinks so. It’s our best lead up ‘til now.” 

Jensen took the picture from Chris, and the moment he saw the evidence, his hands started shaking. That can’t be. He knew that bandana, and panic instantly arose within him. Suddenly way more alert, he straightened in his chair and paid real attention. 

“Ma’am, who’ll go to Honolulu to find the witness?” Agent Ferris looked at him with a serious expression. 

“I was thinking about you, Agent Ackles. You and Agent Morgan.” Jensen heard Jeffrey Dean Morgan, his team partner for the last two and a half years, grumble quietly, but ignored him. He knew by now that Jeff hated going with him on a field trip, considering their personal history. He had to think about new arrangements for the future, but that couldn’t stop him with this mission. He had to find that witness, and was very eager to begin. 

“When do we leave?” 

“You’re booked on a flight from LAX at 8.45pm.” 

This was the moment Jeff spoke up. “Sam, with all due respect, the last time we chased Freddy to Cancun. Wouldn’t it be a good thing to send Durance and Ashmore on the trip this time? They’ve already complained about always having to do the desk work.” He got a stern look from SAC.

“That’s exactly the reason why I sent you. This is not about holidays. This is about work.” That shut Jeff up soundly, and if Jensen hadn’t been so occupied with the evidence in his hands, he would have chuckled, but the only thing on his mind was to get to Honolulu as quickly as possible. He didn’t even register Jeff’s dark expression, and the red faces of the agents Durance and Hartley. 

“What has you so transfixed, Jen?” Christian Kane’s quiet query ripped Jensen from his musings. His friend looked at him curiously. 

“I need to find that witness,” he answered, without thinking. Chris just chuckled. 

“We all want you to…and I can see that you’re happy to go for it. But Jeff doesn’t seem to be too happy though. Probably because he doesn’t want to go with you…You really should clear the air there.” Jensen got himself back under control, and concentrated on the task at hand. He knew Chris was right. The end of the private relationship between him and Jeff had put a strain on their working relationship. 

“Yeah, I know…as soon as we’re done here.” Jensen was nervous and tense. He was fairly sure he knew who this bandana belonged to, and if he was right, there was more at stake than he liked to think about. 

“Maybe the SAC will let me out in the field again, with you as my backup.” Chris winked. Chris had been condemned to desk work since an incident ten months ago, being shot and almost dying was a serious matter. But Jensen wasn’t so sure he even liked his job anymore. It’d cost him too much over the years. He answer was, accordingly, non-committal. 

“We’ll see about that…” He got up. They had to move, or rather, he had to move. There were still some hours left before their flight, but they had some work to do until then. But the SAC seemed to have something to say about his haste.

“We aren’t done here, Agent Ackles,” she admonished. Jensen blushed faintly, and sat down again. He knew she’d let him get away with a lot, but ignoring her wasn’t part of it. Their lead agent droned on about the results from forensic, about the best way to archive their goal this time, and security measurements, but Jensen wasn’t listening anymore. He was already thinking about tactics. 

He knew they could get around the local authorities, but he knew they had to move fast. They still didn’t know where Lehne was getting his information from, but considering he knew there was a witness, he was probably already in action, trying to buy help in Honolulu and get the witness out of the way. That was his way of working, and was usually successful, but this time Jensen had to be faster. No matter what. 

 

“What’s got your knickers in a twist, Jens?” Nine hours later Jeff had gone from grumpy to obnoxious. “You’re well aware of how slim our chances are. It’s been twenty-four hours by now. The chances that the witness is still alive are very slim.” Sometimes Jensen really hated him, and couldn’t understand how he ever had been able to stand the man long enough to have a relationship with him. 

Jensen knew what he said was true, but that wasn’t the point. “You know, that’s really not the best attitude here,” he stated, and Jeff’s face darkened even more. They may not know whether they stood any chance, but they still had to do their best.

Until now, nobody had contacted the authorities about the murder. Either the witness was already dead, or they knew about the danger they were in. Jensen desperately hoped the latter. It would just confirm his suspicions and make matters worse, but they had no reports about apparently unrelated murders here in Honolulu, and so he still had hope. 

“I need to look something up.” Jensen declared as soon as they were waiting to clear customs. He wouldn’t say a word until he was sure, but he’d known that damn bandana, and he had to do his best to protect the owner. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jeff was incredulous.

“You deal with the department, I NEED to look something up.” Jensen tensed up even more. Technically, Jeff was the agent in charge, seeing as he’d been with the Bureau longer than him, but Jensen wouldn’t relent on this, no matter what his partner’s opinion was.

“Jensen, what’s on your mind? I know you well enough to see you’ve got private issues here.” Jeff tried the ‘I’m older and more experienced, but your friend’ approach. His voice was soft and understanding, but if Jensen knew one thing about his ex-partner after one and a half years, it was that this was all just show to get his way if necessary. 

Jensen looked at him sternly. He could give him a crumb at least, “I’ve got a suspicion, and I need to be sure it’s wrong.” It was a bad idea in the first place to go alone, but he didn’t want Jeff to know what he feared. 

“Wrong? You need to confirm it’s wrong?” 

“Yes exactly.” They had finally passed through customs, and were walking through the waiting area of the airport. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me?” Soft and understanding was gone, and pissed ex was back. Jensen threw Jeff a cold glare. “You’re AC. You have to deal with the locals. I’ll be back before you’re even done.” And with that he left his partner to get a car as fast as possible. It wasn’t protocol, but Jensen just didn’t care anymore.

~*~

Jared was extremely nervous to say the least. The call that had given him away yesterday had been from AJ; to let him know he didn’t need to show before 4pm. He was still pissed at his boss. Normally AJ just sent messages. 

He knew who the victim had been by now, it was all over the news. Sterling K. Brown, LA public prosecutor, had been killed on a family holiday in Hawaii. That hadn’t made anything the least bit better. It’d just made Jared more anxious. He didn’t have the best memories of his time in LA, and the connections he was seeing just made it worse. Currently he’d holed up in his apartment in the hope that the dark shadow of Frederic Lehne would pass him by. He’d just gone out for work yesterday, and would the same thing again today. 

Practice was out of the question, and that didn’t improve his mood. He wasn’t sure he’d ever get the chance to go on this tour again in his life. 

The thing bothering him most was the fact that no one had mentioned a witness, and he still hoped Lehne would ignore the fact, even if the chances were very slim. He was living on coffee for the second day in a row and felt terrible, but it was his way to deal with stress. He couldn’t help it, even if it meant he could forget about any competition in the near future if he carried on like this much longer. Why me? Why the hell did I have to be the one to see this?

He hadn’t even thought about contacting the authorities, knowing well that Lehne had his ways of finding things out; another fact from his LA past. Jared gulped coffee down and cursed a blue streak. This whole thing screamed disaster, and if he took the time to think calmly, he had to admit he was scared shitless, and wanted nothing more than to make the right call, But he didn’t think calmly. He didn’t want to.

He was sitting in front of the television, which was on all the time now, when he heard it. There was a quiet buzzing sound from the front door. The authorities never broke into apartments, so there was just one possibility. He’d been found by the wrong guys.

There was no thinking. Jared knew, only too well, what kind of danger he was in. Lehne wasn’t kind to witnesses, and it seemed that they’d found him, and he had absolutely no idea how. Hastily, he put the coffee cup down and headed for the balcony that looked out over the backyard of the building. He was on the second floor, but that didn’t matter. He didn’t want to die for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he knew he had just one chance. He had to make that damn call.

 

“DOWN.” Jensen wasn’t really surprised, when Jared appeared in the balcony doorway. He’d seen Lehne’s goons by the front entrance. He shoved Jared down, and out of the way, assessing the apartment. He’d taken the back route when he’d realized he was almost too late. A second later, the first shot echoed through the neighborhood. Without thinking, he fired back, and then dove for cover behind the wall, landing next to Jared. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” Jared was shocked out of his wits, seeing the object of his musings from seconds ago right next to him. 

“Saving your ass it seems. Up.” Jared had fallen to the ground when Jensen had shoved him out of the line of fire. Jensen dragged him to his feet and threw a look over the balcony railing, before blindly aiming some more shots into the apartment. “We need to get out of here…” Jared did was he was told for once and climbed over the railing, lowering himself carefully down to the balcony below. Jensen followed suit. Moments later, they hit the ground. Staying in the shadow of the building Jensen stirred Jared forward. He had parked his car in a street behind the building. They ran under the cover of palms and hibiscus bushes through the small yard, leaving it through a narrow passage in the opposite building. “The black truck, hurry.”

Jensen climbed in the driver’s side, looking for Jared doing the same on the passenger side while he stared the engine. By now Jared had hopefully realized how serious his situation was, and Jensen just wished he’d do what he was told until he was safe. He moved the truck into traffic and bypassed the front of the building, constantly having an eye out for any signs of pursuit. 

Some minutes later, when he was sure that no one was following them, he dared a look at his passenger. Jared was quiet and clearly pouting. Jensen hadn’t expected anything else.

“Can you at least explain why you didn’t call? You know about him. You know HIM! Is it really so terrible to ask me for help?”

No answer. 

“And if it is that terrible to call me, why the hell didn’t you at least call Chris? He’s your friend too.” God damn, I hate this. I just hate this. Why does it have to be so difficult to talk to you, Jared? 

“When did you ever take a call, if it was me?” Jared asked now. Jensen just snorted. He might’ve been way too busy when he was just starting out on his new job with the Fed’s, but Jared was clearly exaggerating.

“You know, you’re still as childish as when you left LA in the middle of the night.” That one finally made Jared look at him angrily, and he felt the usual pang of hurt in his chest. 

“I’d told you I’d had enough. I’d told you I couldn’t bear it anymore, you standing me up on regular basis. I always came second to that damn job of yours. And honestly, I wasn’t really that excited when the job was the only thing that you had room for in your tiny brain. I didn’t want to hear about Ferris anymore, or Kane…or that fucking case. You stood me up at my graduation…yeah okay…and you stood me up at Jeff’s marriage. What’s the matter? Honestly? I. Couldn’t. Bear. It. Anymore.” 

Jensen had paled. He couldn’t deny all those faults, but they weren’t the crux of the matter. What really shocked him was the fact that Jared, in all his stubbornness, had risked his life, instead of asking people for help who knew about Lehne. If he hadn’t wanted to call him, he could have called Chris or Erica. They had all been his friends too. 

But he had obviously left them behind, as he’d done with Jensen. 

“You know, Jay, that might be all true and as fucked up as it was, that you don’t value your life enough to ask for help…just to prove your point, that’s stupid.” …and it hurts. But that Jensen wasn’t going to tell. 

The break up between he and Jared three years ago had messed with him enough, especially because he knew, only too well, that he was mostly responsible for it. But until today he hadn’t understood why Jared hadn’t given him the time to adjust he’d asked for. He’d been at the FBI for six months when Jared had run off without a word, without any further explanation, without giving them a chance to talk. Jensen knew he had once again missed a crucial date, but coming home to an empty apartment, with all of his lover’s things gone, had been a little harsh in his opinion. 

He didn’t make the effort to talk to his ex lover anymore. Talking had never been a strong point in their relationship. They’d been better at the fun part, and deep inside, Jensen admitted to himself that was why it hadn’t worked out. The college and academy times had been over, and the pair of them had broken apart like brittle glass.

 

“Jensen, God damn, where have you been, and why the hell did you turn your phone off? I’d gotten the name, and the address, and was just on the way.” Jeff was fuming when they entered the Honolulu FBI headquarters, but Jensen wasn’t interested in his hissy fit.

“Jared Padalecki, 76 Luawai St.” he countered. “You can have him for interrogation until we’re ready for the transport. Freddy’s guys have been already to his place, but I got him out in time. I need coffee.” Without another look back, he made a bee line through the busy office for the vending machine, well aware of the incredulous look Jeff sent him. 

“Ackles, come back here.” Jensen stopped in his tracks, turned, and threw Jeff a murderous look, but Jeff ignored it. He caught a passing agent by the arm. “Bring Mr. Padalecki to an interrogation room, and do you by any chance have an unoccupied office? I need to talk with my partner.” The woman just nodded, flustered, and directed him to a door, before she motioned Jared to follow her. 

Moments later, the door of the aforementioned office closed behind Jeff, and Jensen prepared himself for a severe dressing down. He didn’t have long to wait.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? You knew the witness? You knew where to find him, and didn’t say a word?” If Jeff had been fuming before, he was now in a raging fit. Jensen still was unfazed. He’d known he risked his career with this stunt, but he was so fed up that it didn’t matter anymore. 

“AND WHAT? Informing the local department and risking the witness?” he shot back. 

“You could at least have told me.” Jeff sounded hurt, and Jensen almost was sure it wasn’t faked this time. 

“I wasn’t sure, Jeff. I told you I wanted to confirm I was wrong, but I wasn’t.” Jensen rubbed his hands over his face. It was all getting too much, no matter what he tried. Looks like I really need some time off…guess I’ll get it after this. When Jeff finally caught on the fact that he’d been involved with Jared, he would explode for different reasons. Firstly, they had to withdraw from a job if they were emotionally involved; secondly, Jeff was notoriously jealous. It wouldn’t matter that the relationship between he and Jared was way in the past, or that Jensen had broken up with Jeff two month ago; a fact Jeff wasn’t too happy about too.

“How the hell could you know who our witness was?” Jensen was thankful his partner was trying to stay professional about it all.

“I recognized the bandana. At least, I thought I did.” The fight drained out of him and he slumped down in a chair. He so needed a coffee.

“You recognized the…WHAT?” Jeff lost his speech for a moment, before he composed himself and stated, “You know that guy. You know him…”

“Jared. Padalecki. Ring any bells?” 

“Your ex…?” Now Jeff was really flabbergasted.

Jeff hadn’t been on their unit when things had crashed between him and Jared. He’d replaced Eric Kripke on the team six months later, but he’d heard about Jared, even if it wasn’t much. Jensen’s social behavior had still been somewhat erratic then. He’d calmed very slowly after the break up, and if he was honest, Jeff had helped him a lot with that. He’d distracted him with his instant flirting, and later with his insatiable sex drive. Jensen so didn’t want to discuss this right now. 

Jeff composed himself once more, “You knew about the witness from the beginning. You took off alone to retrieve him. AND. You are emotionally involved.” These were three reasons to suspend him instantly. “Jens, I promise you, there will be consequences, and believe me, I won’t make any excuses this time.” Jensen didn’t look up when Jeff left the office. That had been definite. 

~*~

Jared had sunk down on the hard chair in the interrogation room as soon as the woman who’d brought him here had left. He took a deep breath, rubbed his hands over his face, and tried to compose himself a little, having a short burst of amusement at seeing his ex-lover deprived of his beloved coffee.

The confrontation with Jensen had left him rattled, but at least he felt a little safer now that the FBI had taken responsibility. It had been a stupid idea in the first place not to contact one of the people he’d known for years now. That was a point he could concede to Jensen. The same way he’d been right when he’d stated they’d never really talked back in their time in LA. It might have been a mistake, but it was way too late to think about it now.

Jared had made his decision three years ago. It might’ve been a decision made in rage and anger, and he had fought with the consequences for a long time, but he’d adjusted to this life; his life in Hawaii - without Jensen.

There had been a time when Jared had considered Jensen Ross Ackles as the love of his life. 

They had met at UTD, Jared a student for software engineering, and Jensen in the Criminology masters program. They’d hit it off instantly. Within weeks, they’d been an item, and nothing had been able to change that, not even Jensen going to Quantico. Jared had been busy then with training and college. But then Jensen had started working in LA, and had been recruited for the unit chasing Frederic Lehne not much later. From then on, it’d gone downhill. 

Jared had his first doubts about following his lover to California when Jensen hadn’t shown at his graduation, but they’d managed somehow. He’d found a job and had been thinking about a Masters-program at UCLA, but then he had to realize it’d just gotten worse between them. Jared’s own schedule had been tight, but it had the habit of always clashing with Jensen’s, and again and again, Jensen hadn’t shown when he’d said he would. 

When he’d missed the third competition in a row, after several private disasters like missing his brother, Jeff’s, marriage, it just had been enough for Jared. He’d come home to an empty apartment after that Triathlon in Lawrence/Kansas; no message, no phone call. He hadn’t unpacked his bags, just thrown the rest of his belongings into any available bags, packed the rest into cardboard boxes and arranged to ship them to a depot. Two days later, he’d taken a plane to San Antonio to tell his family he was going to Hawaii, seeing as he’d qualified for the IronMan there. By the time he left for Honolulu, he’d had thirty-seven calls from Jensen. The first thing he had done in Honolulu was to get a new phone, and that had been the end of them. 

Jensen hadn’t tried again, although he’d had the means to find him, and Jared had finally started to convince himself this was what he wanted. He’d needed a long time to get there, and now he was a witness in the case that had destroyed his life three years ago, and had to deal with Jensen again on top of it all. Fucking wonderful.

The appearance of Jensen’s partner thankfully ripped him from this musings.


	2. part 2

Jeff stared for a long time at the guy who’d messed Jensen up so long ago. He could see the appeal, at least from Jensen’s point of view. He’d shoved it all to the back of his mind back then, but it came flooding back to him now. He remembered that the guy, Jared Padasomething, had left the pretty boy at a very bad time and broken his heart. Nothing worth remembering, nothing Jeff couldn’t mend. 

Jeff had filled the space the break up, and an endless string of one night stands, had left behind successfully. They had been good together. Sex had been great, work had been great. Talking had had a habit of escalating into screaming matches, but they’d always found a solution. It’d probably always been Jeff’s solution, but it’d worked for a long time, until Jensen had finally had enough of always being on the losing end of an argument. Not much later, Jensen had kicked him out.

If he was honest with himself, Jeff knew it had been unavoidable. They were too opposite in their natures, and he knew himself to be hard headed. He wasn’t happy about it, especially now that it was influencing their work. He’d known they’d have to cut it short soon, and hadn’t liked the thought, because no matter what, Jensen was special to Jeff. He was a good guy, even if he sometimes didn’t know when to back away from things and give himself a break. The job wore him down, and it sometimes needed special powers of persuasion to get him to take his mind off it. 

Jeff had had these powers, but they didn’t work anymore, and now he sat opposite the guy who, in his opinion, had started the whole mess; the reason work was mostly everything for Jensen. The knowledge didn’t help Jeff’s instant dislike.

Padalecki was getting nervous confronted with his silence, and Jeff had to suppress a mean grin. They had to bring the guy safely to LA, okay, but it didn’t necessarily need to be a pleasant trip. 

“All right, Mr. Padalecki, let’s start with the question why you didn’t contact the police after you witnessed a cold blooded murder…”

~*~

Jensen leaned back against the already warmed up wall, next to the back exit of the precinct. He finally had his coffee and a cigarette, and the nice woman that’d lent them her office had told him he could have a smoke by the back exit. 

Some of the tension had left his body, and he was ready to finally take his calls. When he’d gone after Jared, he’d turned his phone off, aware that he could avoid being tracked that way. He hadn’t wanted anyone to know where he was going, but by now Chris would be aware who the witness was, and be going crazy with not being able to get him on the phone. 

He had twelve missed calls; three from Jeff, one from Ferris, and the rest were from Chris, the last one just fifteen minutes ago. He didn’t hesitate long before he called his friend. 

“Do you have him?” was the question that greeted him. Jensen just sighed. 

“Yeah.” He heard Chris release a deep breath.

“Thank God. You knew from the beginning, didn’t you? That’s why you were so tense. How the hell did you know, Jen?”

“The bandana. It was a gift from Megan. She made it herself, and he’s always loved it.”

“You’re such a sap. Just so you know, Ferris is worried sick about you ever since she found out that Jared Padalecki’s the witness. We’ve got a conflict of interest here. She almost send Erica and Aaron after you in a private jet.”

“How did they find out about Jared?” 

“He is registered in the national IAAF for his athletic activities. When forensic came up with DNA from the bandana they checked every available database and found him. Looks like our results were betrayed once moment we had them. We really need to find that damn mole.”

“It almost cost his life. If I hadn’t been fast enough, they would have killed him.” Jensen still shuddered at the thought. 

“Those corrupt bastards. Okay…and how’re you doing?” That was the question Jensen had feared since he’d made the call. Chris knew only too well what Jared’s leaving had done to him. He couldn’t have that discussion now though. He had enough on his mind at the moment.

“I’m fine” He knew he wasn’t, but that was unimportant at the moment. His personal issues had no place here. This was a case, nothing more. Jared was just another witness they had to protect. He’d been made aware of that fact three years ago by Jared cutting him off completely. 

“I bet.” Chris answered in the meanwhile. “We’ll talk about this when it’s over. Steve can’t wait to get a hold of you and tell you to finally finish that damn business between you the right way, especially now that Jeff is out of the picture too.” Steve had never gotten along with Jeff. Jeff was just too domineering for his liking. He’d always insisted that Jensen should just go and find Jared and talk it out, even under threat of a severe beating. 

“Is there anything remotely relating to business there, Chris?” Jensen needed to get back to the facts, “I bet there are more important matters. What about the transport of the witness? Will we get reinforcement from LA, or do we need to rely on the Honolulu department?”

“Uhh…such a lot of technical questions. Erica’s preparing the transport. We’ve got different options. She and Aaron are checking out the best alternatives. You’ll be informed as quickly as possible. Is Jared willing to testify?” 

“I don’t know. Jeff’s with him.”

“Oh…that bad already.”

“Worse.”

“Then I suggest you go make sure Jared’s still alive. I bet Jeff remembers him by now. When Ferris told him his name and address, he clearly didn’t recognize it, and she was bright enough not to say anything. I bet we’ll all be reassigned as soon as this is over.” Jensen knew Chris was probably right. They’d accumulated too many private issues between them all by now, but with any luck, the case was almost over this time and they’d get Freddy. Jensen wouldn’t be unhappy about that. It would finally give him some space to get a grip on his life. 

“Jeff knows. He’s already threatened me with dire consequences.”

“Wow. So he’s already pissed.” Jensen wouldn’t tell Chris just why Jeff was so pissed. Emotional involvement was bad enough already. The rest would likely earn him a serious blow to the head from Ferris. 

“Guess I’ll go then” Jensen provided. 

“I see you’re very enthusiastic.”

“That you can bet on. Call me as soon as the transport’s organized.”

“I will. Later, Jen. And don’t forget to eat something between all those coffees.” That made Jensen laugh before he ended the call. Chris really knew him too well. 

Five minutes later, Jensen entered a very tense atmosphere in interrogation room two. Jeff was pacing, Jared was glaring at him. 

“So, any accomplishments?” His face betrayed nothing of his inner turmoil. He had no doubt that Jared could make this very difficult. 

Jeff let himself fall into the chair opposite Jared, while Jensen stayed by the door. “Imagine, Jens, our boy there thinks he can walk out of here without testifying; even after he was almost shot. What do you think? Looks like we’re here for nothing.” 

Jensen threw the plastic bag with the bandana on the table. “So that means this at the crime scene was pure coincidence, and you know nothing? You’ve got other private problems, as well as being shot?” Jared was glaring at him now. “Lets get this straight, Jay. You know about Frederic Lehne. And you know the approach of the FBI on cases like this one” 

At that, Jared shot up from his chair and started pacing.

“And you expect me to go and testify, and leave my whole life behind? You can’t tell me I’ll testify and then be able to go back to my life afterwards. As you said, I know about Lehne. I’ll have to go into witness protection afterwards, and that’ll end everything for me.” 

“It’s your decision as to what’s more important to you. Staying alive or going out there and trying to live like you were before. We both know how this will go. We’ve seen it happen already, not too long ago. Freddy doesn’t give a shit about the whether you want to testify or not. He’ll take you out of the picture anyway. Testifying is the only chance you have. You know you can bring anyone you’re close to with you, if only to protect them too, and make sure no one can blackmail you. So I’ll ask you once more; did you witness the murder of Sterling K. Brown?” 

Jared shoulders slumped. He wanted to hit something, preferably Jensen. He knew very well what it all meant. He’d known from the beginning. It would end his current life completely. The FBI would have to protect him while he testified. He would then be lost in the witness protection program for years. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t build a new life, but his career in Triathlon competitions would be over. 

He threw Jensen a dark glance through his bangs. Every time something went completely awry in his life, Jensen Ackles was there, Jensen Ackles, and that dark shadow named Frederic Lehne. God damn, I hate Frederic Lehne. I really hate that asshole. The special unit working the Lehne-case had been the beginning of the end for him and Jensen, and now Lehne killing a prosecutor in front of his eyes had ended his athletic career. To make the whole story complete, it had to be Jensen who showed up for his rescue. 

But Jared had already decided he had to act. He had been ready to call someone from Jensen’s team right before his ex lover had shown up. So if he was honest with himself, all he had done until now was stalling. Resigned, Jared rubbed his face and sat down again, putting his elbows on the table and hiding his face in his hands. 

“Brown fell from that bridge, hanging on a rope. I was taking a break and heard him scream. I…I wanted to help him, but he sent me away, and then there was that black truck, don’t know which model. There were three men. Two of them I didn’t recognize, but Lehne…Lehne I recognized instantly. He mocked the prosecutor, talked about him being obsessive, and that it was too personal…whatever…He hit Brown. Then he took a gun from one of his men and shot Brown in the stomach. He then said ‘I wish I could draw this out a little, but I need to catch a flight.’ And shot him in the head.” 

It was Jensen’s partner that interrupted him then. 

“Just to be on the safe side her, you SAW Frederic Lehne aim a weapon at public prosecutor Sterling K. Brown and shoot him twice…the first time in the stomach, the second time in the head?” Jared just nodded, without looking up. 

“There was nothing obscuring your view? You saw Frederic Lehne’s face? Not even the slightest chance of being mistaken?” This time Jared looked up. Are you dumb, agent? He pronounced his next words slowly and precisely.

“Nothing…was obscuring my view. I saw…Frederic Lehne’s face, and there is NO WAY I could’ve mistaken that. I DON’T need glasses. I would recognize that face anywhere.” 

Jensen had to suppress a grin at Jared’s attitude. It was so typical of him. Authority had never impressed him if he thought he was right. He always had gone head first through walls if he deemed it necessary. I should know…I was on the receiving end of his stubbornness. 

“Okay.” Jeff got up. “Jens, give Erica the ‘go’ for the transport. We need to be careful here.” Jensen straightened from his slouching position next to the door, and mock-saluted to Jeff.

“Aye, Sir.” And with that, he turned to leave. He had what he wanted. Jared had agreed to testify and was safe for now. He was almost out of the room when he felt it. It was like a light prickle on the back of his neck; someone staring at him. Jeff was moving through the room again; away from him. That much he could hear, so it could only be Jared. 

Jensen immediately had to ask himself just what was on his mind.

~*~

“HOW THE HELL COULD THIS HAPPEN? Since when is the FBI faster than my people?” Frederic Lehne was about to throw a tantrum. Milo Ventimiglia, his newest assistant, was getting paler and paler. Lehne had a habit of abusing his assistants quite badly.

“I don’t know; Sir. The agent came from nowhere. Ed said they’d entered the apartment to do the job, but Padalecki had been already out of the balcony door, and then the agent shot at them. Harry didn’t make it.”

“THANK GOD I’m careful. Give me the phone.” Milo did as he was told. He wasn’t even interested in the number Lehne called. At that moment, he’d be happy to live through this crisis. 

“Adrian? Yeah…it’s going as planned. I need to make sure he has no chance of getting to LA…No…It doesn’t matter. Just make sure it happens. Okay.” The call ended quickly and Milo trembled. 

“But Sir…there are…” He knew about the back up plan. He knew what was about to happen.

“I’m not interested in WHAT there is. I need this witness out of the way, and accidents happen. So WHAT?” 

Milo gulped. “Nothing Sir.”

“Good.” Without another word, his boss went back to business. Milo just could go with the flow. 

~*~

At Honolulu Jensen and Jeff were ready to be flown back out to LA. They were at the airport and were waiting for their flight. The FBI had closed off the VIP waiting area, making sure no one could come too close to Jared. He might be in FBI custody now, but Jensen and Jeff trusted nobody else with this. They’d been too late too often. Too often witnesses had been killed before they’d even a chance to talk to them, and Jared’s testimony was clearly crucial. 

Jensen slouched in one of the comfortable chairs and tried to relax a little. The situation was getting to him. It was causing him to confront all his problems. He had stayed as far away from Jared as possible so far, and had just let Jeff deal with him. At the moment Jeff had gone to talk about the transport with Aaron or Erica once again. Jared stood by the big panoramic windows with a view of the airfield, and he had a little time to himself.

Jared had been quiet since it had been made clear that he had just one option if he wanted to survive. They had his testimony written out and signed, and recorded and saved in the LA department database. It was the most they’d ever obtained in the Lehne case.

Jared clearly had resigned himself to his destiny; protective custody, testimony and the witness protection program. Jensen felt sorry for him, but it was the only way. He didn’t want to think about his ex lover, but he was once again deeply troubled about the whole unsolved business from three years ago. He was so deep in his thoughts that he didn’t even realize that Jared was speaking to him. He literally jumped when Jared’s voice penetrated his thoughts. 

“Jensen?...That our flight?” He was obviously observing something on the airfield, and was evidently not asking for the first time. Jensen got up and went to the window. Down on the field, a jet was being prepared, police cars surrounding it.

“Looks like it. Jeff is managing the transport.” They still weren’t sure how they were getting Jared to LA. The longer this stayed secret, the better. 

“So you still take orders from superiors. Didn’t make it far, did you? Even though you were always so eager.” The hit went home, but Jensen didn’t rise to the bait. He knew that game too well. They had played it again and again, when Jensen hadn’t been where he was supposed to be for the umpteenth time. 

“Don’t you think that it’s below you to bring up the childish games again?” He said instead, and turned back to his chair, knowing well that Jared was pouting once more. 

Minutes later Jeff showed up again.

“Okay, guys, let’s go. Everything’s prepared.” They left the lounge via a staircase, but instead of turning left to the airfield, Jeff steered them right.

“What’s…” Jared was instantly aware of the wrong turn, but Jeff quickly quieted him.

“Silence,” he ordered, and Jensen didn’t need to question the situation when he saw three people pass them in the corridor. They weren’t taking the jet. It looked like they were taking a first class overnight flight.

~*~

South Pacific Airlines flight 121 was preparing for take-off. The flight attendants had just boarded the plane. For one of the flight attendants, Michael Rosenbaum, it would be his last flight. He’d finished his law degree, and was about to leave this job behind. He was joking with his colleague, Kristin Kreuk, as they boarded. They were both hoping for a quiet night flight. 

Michael and Kristin were already expected by their colleagues, Sera Gamble, the flight attendant in charge, and Allison Mack. They had a small surprise for Michael’s last flight with them, a good bottle of Scotch as a leaving present. 

Allison was her usual jovial self, “But none before we land in LA. And I really hope you won’t be a stranger in the future.

“Do you really think I could ever forget the lot of you?” Michael answered her back, smiling.

“No, and I really wish you’d take me with you,” she joked, and winked at him. It was well known Michael had no use for a woman. Michael slapped her on her ass with a fake frown on his face. 

“Get busy, woman! There are passengers waiting.” Allison laughed at that, but did as he told her. All in a good mood the flight attendants started on their duties, but it wasn’t long until this mood changed.

Captain Weatherly, their pilot for the night, came down the stairs from the first class and told Sera that the FBI had taken over the whole of first class.

That was bad news. The flight attendants were suitably shocked.

“And who’ll be the lucky guys telling the first class passengers they have to fly coach?” Michael asked her. Sera looked sheepish.

“That would be you, kid. You and Kristin.”

“Oh wonderful. Just the right way to finish working at SPA.” Michael was anything but excited. “Is this what the dogs are about?” A security guard with a German Shepherd had checked the plane some minutes ago.

“Looks like it.” Sera shrugged her shoulders apologeticly. “Good luck with that, Mikey. Sorry you and Kirstin got the first class duty tonight. I thought I’d be doing you a favor.” 

“Yeah, some favor that is, but you know I’m the best one for that job anyway. Who could take the wrath of the first class divas better than me?” Mike grinned and rubbed his hands gleefully. If Sera hadn’t known him so long, she would’ve probably been worried, but she knew he could take it on, as good natured as he was.

Grinning broadly, Mike took his place by the entrance, almost too eager, as their copilot boarded.

“Ah, Rosey. I really hoped you’d be on this flight. Isn’t it your last for SPA?” A hard slap on the back made Mike almost stumble.

“Chad…just my luck. You won’t be angry if I tell I could’ve done without you tonight?” Chad’s grin grew from ear to ear.

“Don’t be mean to me, Mikey. What would you do without me? You aren’t able to fly a big plane like this. Not even with a law degree,” he winked. Mike pouted.

“I can so do without your expressions of superiority, Chad.” 

“Hey man, give me the chance to be really mean to you one last time.”

“You’ve had it, so now go flying your big plane, as it’s the only big thing you are able to fly.” Chad continued up the stairs laughing, passing Kristin coming down.

“Isn’t he prince charming?” She whispered, smiling at him.

“Yeah, he is, and thankfully he’s a straight prince charming. So all his charm in the future will be for you, when I’m not here anymore to pester” Mike gave back gleefully, before going back to his work.

~*~

Meanwhile, in LA Frederic Lehne’s private cell phone rang.

“It’s SPA flight 121,” was what he was told.

“Okay, then bring it on.” The shocked look of his assistant didn’t even register with him.

~*~

“It’s time to board, Jens.” Jeff hurried Jensen and Jared out of the dark corridor into the terminal; phone still at his ear. They’d waited there for some minutes now, and their charge was visibly nervous.

“All clear then?” Jensen opened the door in front of them and took a look at the empty corridor, before they walked out there and onto the gangway.

“That guy from the local department just gave me the go ahead.” Jeff answered, shutting the phone off. “The jet’s already taken off. Any remaining watchers should be distracted.” Jeff was as tense as Jensen was. They’d gone to great efforts to lay wrong trails.

“Hopefully you’re right.” Jensen wasn’t sure he liked the idea of flying on a scheduled flight.

“Hopefully is good. That’s a plane full of people you’re about to endanger.” Jared snorted and expressed what Jensen had just been thinking, but he ignored him, while Jeff threw him another dark look. He’d made a habit of this already, because it was very clear by now that Jared had decided to be artfully prissy, and Jensen was just waiting for Jeff to explode, but they made it onto the plane without further complications.

The welcome was reserved, but Jensen wasn’t really surprised. The flight assistants couldn’t be happy about the fact that the FBI had taken over first class. It would be their job to explain the mess to the other first class passengers. They headed straight upstairs and took their seats, Jared on the side towards the back, and Jensen as far away from him as possible. He was a little surprised when Jeff slumped in the seat next to him, but his partner just rumbled:

“Don’t look so surprised. He won’t come close to you, and this way he won’t come close to me either.” Jensen couldn’t help but laugh quietly at this.

~*~

“God damn, THAT was a tall drink of water.” Mike faked a swoon. Sometimes even fully grown flight attendants were allowed to behave like blushing school girls. Kristin laughed quietly. 

“I prefer the pretty one, and grumpy isn’t too bad either.”

“I don’t want to disappoint you, but my gaydar is flying miles high here. About all three. Grumpy has his hands on pretty boy, while tall, dark and handsome pouts cutely at both of them. What strange FBI mission is that?”

“Oh come on, Mike. You can’t be serious. Give a girl a break here.”

“There isn’t one to be had. That tension between them feels like a TV drama. Seriously, what’s the matter with these agents? Why do they have to take over first class for that?” Mike ranted on.

“Want to take upstairs service then? To satisfy your curiosity?” Kristin offered generously. 

Mike made a puppy dog face. “You’d switch?”

“It’s your last flight, darling, and you know I would do almost anything for you.” 

“And for this, I could kiss you.” Mike made as though to fall to his knees, and Kirsten snatched at his uniform, laughing. 

“Stop being so silly, we’ve work to do.” 

Mike composed himself. “Okay. But I’ll invite you to something really big once we’re in LA.” 

“Dinner will do, Mikey. Dinner will do,” and with that, they waited for the boarding to begin. 

As expected it didn’t go too well telling the first class passengers they had to fly business class or coach, and some of them created a fuss about it. A business man from NY, John Glover, had the audacity to ask if he would still be on time flying coach class, and an actress, Lauren Cohen, really asked if it was safe there. Justin Hartley, the assistant of another passenger, got especially nasty towards Mike, and had to be reigned in by his boss, Thomas Welling, who had Mike in another swoon as soon as he had the time for it. 

Boarding in business class went way smoother for Allison and Sera, even if the poor passengers there had to endure the pissed behavior of some of the first class passengers. Mr. Glover was particularly mean. Firstly, he felt disturbed by Miss Cohen’s dog, and then he got angry at Katie Cassidy, a young woman flying alone with her nine month old daughter. At that Sera offered him another seat. Thankfully, the flight wasn’t fully booked. 

The last two passengers boarding were two boys, eleven year old Dean Winchester, and his seven year old brother, Samuel. Samuel was especially angsty when he said goodbye to his Dad, John Winchester, a colonel at the air force base, and currently kneeling in front of his son. 

“Dad, why can’t you come with us?” Sam whined.

“Come on, you’re gonna be fine. You’re gonna have fun.” The Colonel tried to divert his son’s worries. The older boy just put his arm around his little brother’s shoulders.

“Don’t worry, Dad. I’m gonna look out for Sammy,” Dean interfered. “It’s gonna be alright, Sam,” he told his younger brother then, and that seemed to help. Colonel Winchester stood up, looking at Mike, who had been quietly observing the family.

“My wife is waiting for them in LA. It’s the first time they’ve flown alone, so Sammy here is a little nervous.” Mike winked at Samuel, who shied even closer to his big brother.

“Oh, I think this will be okay. I can see what brave boys you have here. But rest assured, we’ll keep a close eye on the boys.” Winchester just nodded, gave his boys a last nod, and left. Seeing that the boys weren’t surprised in the slightest about this, Mike guessed there was a certain drill behind it. He escorted the boys personally to places close to the service rooms. 

Not long after, flight 121 was ready for take off and the flight attendants went over the security routine, showing the passengers the emergency exits, explaining the oxygen masks and life jackets, and pointed out the fact that smoking in the lavatories, or disabling the smoke detectors there, were prohibited by the law. Mike put on a particularly exciting show in first class, but couldn’t get a rise from the gloomy passengers there. He was getting even more curious as to what was going on between these three men. 

Just minutes later, the plane took off. Captain Weatherly gave his usual speech and informed the passengers about some bad weather on the way, and as soon the seat belts could be taken off again, the flight attendants started going about their business. 

Mike took his chance with the special passengers in first class the moment he was allowed to. The suits didn’t seem very responsive, so he just served them a bottle of Perrier and glasses for a start. Then he took his chance with the charge in the back. Bringing another small bottle of Perrier and a glass was an acceptable reason to sit down next to the good looking tall man, and he smiled at him blindingly.

“So, I’m Mike…and honestly, you don’t look like a fugitive that needs two good looking agents to escort him to jail.” That brought him a glare, and his speech stuttered to sudden a halt. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to step on your toes,” he backpedaled hastily. 

“It’s not especially difficult to step at my toes in the moment.” Jared answered, and threw a glare in the direction of the seats the agents were occupying. 

“That bad, heh?” Mike provided, carefully now.

“Worse,” Jared answered, resigned. 

“Want some champagne? Or something stronger?” Mike suggested, and this finally brought a small smile out. 

“Won’t change anything. It’ll still be a shitty situation. I’m Jared. Jared Padalecki.” Mike took the offered hand, and got a little bolder again.

“So…if you don’t mind…may I ask just what you did?”

“Me? Nothing. It’s about what I’m supposed to do. I had the luck to run into a very fucked up situation. Does the name Frederic Lehne mean anything to you?” 

Yeah, talk to the nice flight attendant. You look like you need some smooching. You can get anything from me, sugar. And it doesn’t look as if the other two are very supportive. Mike had the strong impression Jared was thankful for any distraction. He easily could provide that.

“Well, I’d have to be deaf and blind if it didn’t.” Mike answered his question. “I once saw that TV show, you know with these re-enacted cases, where he tortured this guy who was a witness against him by gauging out his eyes and feeding them to some pigs. Really gruesome stuff,” he rambled on.

“Yeah…I know that much,” Jared deadpanned, looking at Mike fully now. 

“So…what’re you supposed to have done then?” Mike continued.

At this, Jared actually grinned, even if it was gloomily. “I’m a witness for the prosecution.” Mike opened and closed his mouth twice before he composed himself again.

“Oh…ups. I’m…wow. You must be very brave.” That had gone a little awry. 

“Not really. I just have no other way out.” 

There wasn’t much to say to that. Mike felt terrible now. “I’m sorry for my loose trap. I didn’t want to scare you.” 

Jared laughed humorlessly. “Don’t worry. It’s not as if I don’t know a lot more of Lehne’s niceties.”

“You one of the Fed’s too?” Mike had no problem about gaining some more information, even if he’d put his foot in his mouth just moments before. But Jared was quick to deny that one.

“Christ, no. I was just involved with one some years ago.” His glare in the direction of the agents told Mike everything he wanted to know. Looks like I’m right again. He obviously hadn’t imagined the tension between these men. There was clearly a lot of unresolved history. 

Just then, grumpy got up, but bowed down to the pretty one to say something, the gesture somehow very intimate. The glare on Jared’s face got even more intense, and Mike had to hide a self-satisfied grin.

“I see,” he said. Jared instantly realized he had given away too much, and he apparently felt the need to defend himself.

“It’s not what you are thinking. I just despise them on principle,” but the faint blush said otherwise. Mike got his cockiness back. 

“Was it grumpy, or the pretty one?” At that, Jared blushed crimson and sank a little lower in his seat. Mike stood up. “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me. I’ll be back later,” and with a wink, he made his exit.


	3. Chapter 3

Jared was left behind; alone with his thoughts once more. Damn, me and my loose tongue. He got me to spill more than I meant to. He couldn’t help but grin at that. The flight attendant really had an incredible way about him, he made people want to open up to him, and he’d clearly sensed the tension up in first class. Jared knew he’d done a lot to make it worse, but he couldn’t help it. 

It’s so fucking obvious there’s something between you and that damn sugar daddy, Jen, it’s just disgusting. Jared knew he was being particularly mean, but didn’t regret it in the slightest. It was just wrong in his eyes. He’d thought he was over the past, but it was obvious he’d been strongly mistaken about that. God, I so wish I’d never seen you again. Hawaii really should have been far away enough, shouldn’t it? But it hadn’t. Slumping further down in the comfortable seat and turning to the window, he tried to get a grip on his emotions. 

The worst thing about all this was the fact that Jensen evidently wasn’t especially happy to see him again either. But what had Jared expected? His ex had stopped calling the moment he’d gotten rid of his old cell phone, although he knew Jensen had ways to get his new number. Why, Jared…you almost sound pissed at that…ouch. Jared’s face became even darker. He didn’t want to go there, but it seemed impossible to avoid. 

He HAD been hurt that Jensen had given up so quickly. He’d just never admitted it before, but now, seeing him again, it all came back in some force – because it still hurt. Jared pressed his eyes shut and pushed it back. He didn’t need this now. It was long over. Jensen had proven that much.

And with that, the anger came back.

 

Jensen wasn’t really angry when Jeff got up to stretch his legs a little. He was sure Jeff felt as uneasy as he did, being that close. If he were honest, he’d have loved a cup of strong hot coffee, but that had to wait. The flight attendant had disappeared, and as long as Jeff was gone, he’d have to stay put. He didn’t expect anyone to go after Jared anymore, but better safe than sorry. Jensen tried to relax a little more and pulled his iPod out of the inside pocket of his jacket. It looked like being a quiet flight.

He lost that belief the moment Jared decided to pipe up again. 

“Why, Jensen, are you going for the older generation now? Didn’t know you had liked the sugar daddies.” Jensen took a deep breath, put the ear phones in, and ignored Jared. Moments later, the subject of his irritation fell in the seat next to his and put his foot up against the one opposite, the smile on his face telling Jensen, in no uncertain terms, he was in for a rough ride. 

Jared had been pissed since the beginning of this whole mess, but right now, he seemed even angrier. “You do everything for that job, don’t you, Jen? Even bedding superiors.” Jensen really wished he had the iPod turned on already, but he hadn’t, and so he couldn’t prevent himself from reacting in a condescending, and slightly pissed, manner at this. 

“Could you get even lower, Jared? I wouldn’t have expected it, but it’s obviously possible. What the hell do you want from me? First; what’s between me and Jeff’s none of your business. Second; I KNOW I fucked up our relationship with my work. If that’s what you wanted to hear, you should have answered one of my calls three years ago…but contrary to what you’re thinking, Jeff is a great guy, and I hooked up with him for exactly that fact, and nothing else. At least he could understand my work ethics. And NOW…please…GO back to your seat and leave me alone. I can’t deal with your shit at the moment. I have a job to do.” Jensen was out of his seat and halfway to the stairs, when Jared speaking stopped him again. 

“Do you know how often I heard those exact words from you after you started with the Fed’s? ...It was all you ever had to say.” He still sounded angry, but there was an edge to his voice, and Jensen made the mistake of looking back at him. He instantly wished he hadn’t, had never seen the hurt in those hazel eyes. He couldn’t even bear the memories of what had happened, but this just made it all worse. To see how much he’d hurt the man he had loved more than anything ripped his heart apart for the umpteenth time.

Jensen turned and ran away; oddly reminded of an empty apartment, and Jared’s Mom telling him Jared had left for Hawaii. 

 

Jeff assessed the situation the moment he reached first class. He’d been a little surprised meeting Jensen running down the stairs in haste, but seeing Padalecki in his seat left him with no doubt about what had gone down. The damn kid jumped to his feet and made a quick retreat to his own seat the moment he saw Jeff. Jeff’s mood became even worse than it had been. 

He didn’t need that guy to mess with Jensen. Jensen had been broken enough, thanks to him, and Jeff wouldn’t give Jared a chance to mess him up again because, no matter what Jensen thought, he still cared about the other man, and was still frustrated about the fact they’d split up. 

Without hesitation, he went over to their charge and ignored the fact that Padalecki did his best to treat Jeff like he was invisible. 

“A word of warning, son,” he stated in his most serious voice. If looks could kill, he would have dropped dead the moment Padalecki looked up. 

“I don’t think I need anymore warnings from you than I’ve already had. I know my boundaries,” he snapped.

“Doesn’t look like it,” Jeff just retorted. “If you mess with my partner just once more, I promise you this will become a hard ride. Jens will be out of your hair the moment we land, but until then, you’ll stay away from him. Understand?” There was badly veiled anger in Padalecki’s eyes, and Jeff had a pretty good idea why he was so pissed. It looked like there were a lot of unsolved issues and the answer he got from Padalecki proved that.

“Don’t expect me to be impressed by you, Morgan. There’s no hard ride I can’t take, and you won’t stop me, not if I don’t want to be stopped.” Jeff changed tactics.

“So you want mess him up again, set him back on the route to self-destruction?” That one hit home, Jeff could see it, but he could be a cruel bastard when necessary, and so he landed another punch for good measure, “But on the other hand, I picked him up once before. I’m sure I can do it again.” And with that, he turned and went back to his seat.

There was a cold smile on his face. He almost wished Padalecki would break apart Jensen once again, and give him another chance to help the man back on his feet. There were some mistakes he would avoid this time, if Jensen would just give him a chance. 

 

When Jensen came back, Jared was back in his seat; his legs drawn up to his still lanky body, arms hooked around them, and face turned away. There was no doubt he was pretending to be asleep. Jeff, whom he’d met on the stairs as he’d run down them, had taken his previous place. Jensen sat down next to him again. Jeff just looked at him for a few minutes, until he lost his patience and came to the point.

“You’re alright?” Jensen just huffed, but Jeff wasn’t impressed. “Come on, Jens, I know you. He’s getting to you with his jilted lover attitude.” God damn it, why does he have to know me that well? Jensen griped mentally. In spite of everything, they’d been lovers for two and a half years, and Jensen was very sure no one knew him as well as Jeff, in spite of how it had ended.

“He wasn’t the jilted one. He left me. And he had every right to.” He defended Jared grudgingly. He’d accepted that fact a long time ago.

“What happened?” once more Jeff played the ‘I’m your friend, no matter what’ card and Jensen couldn’t help but to give in. He almost wanted to get it out. And he knew Jeff could be a good friend. That was how they’d started out. 

“Jared couldn’t cope with my work schedule. I was new at the Bureau, just settling in, and then they set me up in the unit working the Lehne case. You know what went down three years ago. It was stressful. There was too much work, not enough time, busted plans…all that shit. Stood him up more often than not. He was better off that way, honestly.” Jensen was surprised when Jeff chuckled quietly.

“And I really thought you were a workaholic because of that busted relationship, but now I see that’s just how you are.” he stated.

Jensen’s answer was almost automatic. “Sorry.” He blamed himself for another wrecked relationship, because he still hadn’t been able to deal with both, the work relationship and the private one. They had blurred in to each other more and more, until there was no way around it. Private arguments came up at work, and the differences in their work ethics pressed into their private life. 

“You’re an idiot, you know that?” That brought back the anger that had been so prominent in their last months. 

“It’s so nice of you state it that clearly.” 

Once again his partner just chuckled. “Really, Jens, don’t you see it? What went down between you and me is something completely different from you and that guy…You have no reason to be sorry. It…just didn’t work out between us…but not only because of you. I’m stubborn, and I want things to go my way. I know that, and I expected you to deal with that. When you stopped, it went awry. It’s not about that. You have no reason to be sorry for being your own man. 

“I think you’re an idiot, because you can’t see what you’re doing. You’re such a bright guy, but you don’t see that this job burns you out. There were times I could’ve stopped you, but they’re over…and you’re doing it again…getting in too deep. I’m not really sure this is the best line of work for you. 

“I’m different. I can distance myself, but you just don’t do it. You just do everything with your whole heart…something I admired in the beginning, until I saw what it did to you…and believe me, it will kill you if you don’t stop. It’s what killed your relationship with that guy. You just don’t know where to stop. Think about it…I know what the job takes out of you. I’ve seen it. Just think about it, okay.”

Jensen didn’t say anything to that. He was way too shocked about what Jeff had said. 

Jeff, on the other hand, made himself comfortable in the seat and closed his eyes. “I’ll catch a little shut eye. Wake me if you want a turn sleeping, but I guess with all the coffee you’ve already had, that won’t happen until we land.” 

~*~

In the meanwhile flight SPA 121 was running smoothly. Mike, considering he had just three passengers in first class, helped Sera serve the passengers in business class. 

“You know, I’m gonna miss these night flights,” he admitted in a chatty mood. Sera just smiled at him.

“You mean you enjoy the passengers so much better when they’re unconscious.” 

“Exactly, but you, you and the others I’m really gonna miss. You know.” Yeah, and looking at all these pretty straight man. They had just passed Mr. Welling, and the guy had given him a shy smile. Mike had no idea how a man like him could cope with such a prissy assistant. 

“Excuse me, sir, can I have a Gin and tonic?” Some one else asked, and Mike went back to business. That poor guy with the pretty wife was so obviously scared to death of flying, Mike just couldn’t understand why he’d even gotten on a plane. 

“I’ll be right back with that” The least he could do was to bring the poor man some liquid courage. When he was done with that, he found Allison leaning against the wall next to the washrooms, a broad grin on her face. Hearing the sounds from inside, he couldn’t help but grin too.

“Mile high club…” Allison singsonged. “Did you ever manage, Mikey?” 

“As if I’d tell you.” 

“Oh…come on…give me something for my dirty imagination.” She teased, while the sounds from inside got more and more intense. 

“Wow…sounds like a real number. That guy must be good.”

“You’re changing the topic, Mikey.”

Mike threw her a glare, but on the other hand, why shouldn’t he tell her? “To be honest, I’m a proud member of the club, if you really need to know.” 

Allison squealed. “Yeah…on duty, or not?” She asked further.

“Are you crazy, woman? Off duty!” 

Allison looked at him suspiciously. ”I bet it was Michael Cassidy.” The deep crimson color, Mike’s face took on told her everything.

“I hate you, Mack.” 

Grinning, she strutted away. “I love you too, Mikey.” Pouting, Mike decided to check on his passengers in first class for while. 

The sounds from the lavatory had long stopped by now, but still no one came out.

~*~

The plane was just hitting the expected turbulence when the problems started, and the pilots were the first to realize it, because suddenly more than one alert went off. Captain Weatherly wasn’t amused.

“Damn, we just lost avionics. Notify LAX.” 

Chad instantly did as he was told. “LAX. Hula 1-2-1, mayday, mayday, mayday, we are 1500 nautical miles south-west of Los Angeles. Repeat…mayday…we’ve lost avionics.”

 

At LAX tower, Jim Beaver answered the emergency call. “Hula 1-2-1. Heavy. Los Angeles tower. We acknowledge your emergency. You have priority.”

 

“All right. Give me the safety manual and take control.” Captain Weatherly ordered Chad.

“I have control.” The co-pilot answered. At that, Weatherly unbuckled his belt and got out of his seat, taking a flashlight from a holder before opening a trapdoor down into the nerve centre.

“Oh damn. Chad, we have smoke.” 

“Something probably arced in the electrical systems.” Chad provided. He had real trouble just holding the plane steady in the heavy turbulence without any electronic support. Captain Weatherly was just taking a look around the nerve centre when Mike burst in. The passengers were getting a little nervous about the bumpy flight.

“How much longer do you think before we climb…” he lost his train of thought as he assessed the situation. “…What happened?” 

“We lost the board. I gotta reset the breakers.” Weatherly explained. “Keep her steady, Chad.”

“All right,” came Chad’s answer, while Weatherly started climbing down the metal ladder leading in the nerve centre of the plane. Mike made his way into the cockpit and stood next to Chad’s seat, just in case he needed to help. Moments later, the first LED on the display came back on. 

“Okay Cap, they’re coming back.” Moments later, everything was working okay again. “That’s it. We’re back in business,” Chad called out. There was no answer from the nerve centre. 

Mike bowed down to the trapdoor. “Captain?” The sight that met his eyes shocked him to the core. “Oh my God, Chad!”

“What is it, Rosey?”

“Something happened to the captain.” 

“All right. I’m coming, sugar.” Chad set the plane on autopilot, and climbed from his seat. The jokes left him the moment he had a clear view down into the nerve centre. “Oh Christ.” Chad hurried to climb down the ladder. “Did you see what happened?”

“No.” Mike watched Chad’s progress. He knelt down next to Captain Weatherly. 

“Captain?” When Mike saw Chad search for Michael Weatherly’s pulse, he felt a tight knot form in his gut.

“What is it, Chad?”

“He’s dead. Damn, Mike, he’s dead.” Shock was visible in Chad’s face, and Mike could honestly agree with him, but they had to keep the situation under control, and the first thing that had to be done was to inform the agents aboard. Mike jumped to his feet and left the cockpit for first class.

“Agent Morgan, Agent Ackles, can I see you in private for a moment?” The men exchanged a look before they got up.

“Sure, Mr. Rosenbaum.” Michael escorted the two agents into the cockpit.

“Sirs, we lost the captain.” he stated starkly. Agent Morgan looked at him as if he’d lost his marbles.

“You’re kidding me?”

“I’m sorry, but no.” Chad was back up from the nerve centre. He stood and held his hand out. “Chad Michael Murray. I’m the co-pilot.” The Agents both shook his hand and introduced themselves. “We had a failure in the electronics, and he went down to reset. The next we saw was him dead on the ground.” He looked at agent Ackles, who headed toward the nerve centre now himself. 

“Did anything happen? Did you hear something?” Morgan asked in the meanwhile. Both Chad and Mike shook their heads. A moment later, agent Ackles came back up again. 

“He’s definitely dead, and there’s no obvious cause of death at first sight. Probably heart attack.”

“He’s a healthy man in his early forties,” Mike interrupted, and blushed at almost the same moment. 

Agent Ackles gave him a faint smile. “I’m sorry. It’s all I can say. We’ll have no idea why he died until we can perform an autopsy.”

“We should go back.” Agent Morgan stated just then, but Chad disagreed.

“We’re over halfway to LA. It would take us longer to go back to Honolulu than to keep going to LA.” 

“Okay,” Morgan conceded. “You’d know better than me concerning this.” Chad just nodded and, with a last look at Mike, went back to his seat,.

“Make sure everyone is strapped in, Mike.” 

“Sure.” Mike left the cockpit with the two agents and Chad made his report to LAX, letting them know that they’d lost their captain. 

 

Jeff held Jensen back the moment Mike was gone. He was aware Jared was watching, and made it a little more intimate just to spite him. Jeff had no doubts about the reasons for Jared’s aggressive behaviour, and two could play at that game. 

“What do you think?” he whispered in Jensen’s ear. 

“I don’t like it.” That, from Jensen, should’ve made any of Jeff’s doubts go away. Jensen’s instincts were almost never wrong, but Jeff wasn’t ready to see reason. 

“Jens, the man probably had a heart attack,” he tried to dissolve his partner’s misgivings. Jensen pulled away from him and looked out of one window into the darkness of the night. 

“We don’t know that. It’s just…too coincidental. As the flight attendant said, he was a healthy man in his early forties. Not really material for heart attacks.”

“Jensen,” Jeff sounded close to whining. 

“No, Jeff. It’s…at least you should check in with Ferris. I don’t like this. Check Weatherly’s background. Get anything there is about him. What if he was being blackmailed? What if that caused this heart attack? We need to know. There’s too much at stake.” Jensen looked back at Jeff, and Jeff’s heart hurt at the expression in his eyes. God, boy, how can this be? What is it that makes that guy so special to you? It was there and then that Jeff accepted their relationship was over, no matter what he wished. Jensen clearly was still too hung up on this Padalecki kid, and seeing him again had brought it back full force, no matter what they’d once had. 

“Okay. I’ll go call Ferris over the satellite phone. Don’t let him get to you, Jens, okay? I know it’s difficult, but we need to do our job. That’s more important than anything else for now.” Jeff left first class to get hold of the onboard satellite phone.

 

“What happened?” Jared looked at Jensen, and knew something was very wrong. You could call Jensen Ackles a lot of things, including mean and nasty, but one thing Jared knew; Jensen was very good at what he did. “Jensen…”

He could see when Jensen snapped back to attention. Jensen looked at him for a moment, and then he came over, and fell into a seat one row over.

“We lost the captain.” 

Jared couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Accordingly, he sounded very disbelieving when he said, “What?” 

“I don’t know what to think about this. Captain Weatherly is dead…probably heart failure or heart attack…or something like that. The only thing we don’t know is why.” Jared looked at him incredulously.

“And you want to convince yourself that’s coincidence?” he snapped, against his better judgement. He knew very well Jensen didn’t, he wouldn’t look that haggard otherwise.

Jensen was quiet. He just stared off to space, and for the first time Jared realized how exhausted he looked. He couldn’t help but back pedal. “Jensen,” Jensen looked in the other direction.

“I just don’t like it. I…God damn, Jay…in all honesty, at the moment, I just wish this wouldn’t be all about you,” he admitted desperately.

“Yeah, but it would be someone else…still a flight full of innocent people and you…and all of it is probably supposed to crash. What the hell is the difference?” Jared was fairly sure Jensen would be worried about any witness in danger. He was just made that way. His feeling of duty always had ruled him, even if he was obviously a little emotionally rattled at the moment. 

Jensen rubbed at his eyes. “I know, there isn’t any. And probably it’s really all coincidence…but…”

“But your gut tells you something else,” Jared finished his sentence, and was once more surprised how tuned in to Jensen he still was. Fuck, you were such an idiot. Did you really think you could get rid of him that easily? Especially after never really trying. Jared knew that was the truth. He’d been with other guys now and then, but there had never been the option of a new relationship. Nothing came even close to Jensen. 

And now they sat here, Jared depending on Jensen to live through this shit, depending on a job he’d hated. He never would have expected to one day be in such a situation, never had expected to need the FBI to protect him. Not when he had decided years ago to hate anything FBI, considering it had made him lose Jensen. 

Jared didn’t realize Jensen was looking at him when he turned to him again, all his fears in his eyes. Jensen’s face told him nothing. 

“You know that I’ll do anything in my power to make this right, don’t you?” he asked. 

Jared composed himself. “Even if I know nothing else, I know you give everything to this job.” It was a low blow, Jared knew that, and he could see that it’d hit home. But the satisfaction never came. He had to ask himself if it’d made a difference, being on the receiving end of Jensen’s job, but somehow it didn’t feel that way. It was more like he was suddenly confronted with the fact that he’d made some mistakes himself, because one thing remained true; Jensen’s compassion for the things important to him was admirable. 

He couldn’t follow that train of thought any further, and fortunately right then, the annoying partner came back and, with a suspicious glare at him, fell in the seat opposite Jensen. 

“Can I talk to you in private, Jens?” A mean smile spread over Jared’s face. Still trying to get a hold on something that doesn’t really belong to you? Jensen did him the favour of acknowledging Jared, at least a little.

“It’s not as if it isn’t his business too, Jeff.” Morgan glared a little more, but conceded. 

“Ferris has nothing on Weatherly. She’s set Chris on it, but I don’t think they’ll find anything. It can’t just be an attack. I asked the flight attendant in charge, Gamble. The captain was aboard way before the security check, and even before the jet took off. The decision to take the regular flight happened just minutes before we boarded. He can’t be involved. So we need to accept it was just a coincidence.”

“Jeff, you damn well know Freddy. He likes to have everything under control. What if he took extreme measures to prevent us from leaving Hawaii?” Jared slumped a little deeper in his seat, feeling defeated once more. Morgan jumped at that instantly.

“What is it Padalecki?” 

“Oh, nothing. I’ve just seen my chances of surviving crumble to dust here. Thank you very much, Agent Ackles.” He could see Jensen grin at this from the corner of his eye, and that seemed to piss Morgan off even more. 

“Ignore him, he can be very childish, as you should have realized by now.” Jared glared at him, but Jensen didn’t look at him and continued, “What about the jet?” 

“Flew back to Honolulu undisturbed. But they were in the air for only an hour. So it was probably coincidence too. Ferris has them checking the jet right now.”

“I need another look at the Captain.” Jensen got up. 

“Okay…and I’ll play nanny a little longer. Stay away from the coffee, Jens, you’re high strung enough already.” Jensen glared at him, before disappearing in direction of the cockpit, and Jared was left alone with grumpy, as Mike had called the older agent. He wasn’t surprised when Morgan reprimanded him again.

“You know, kid, if you’re still that damn jealous, why did you leave him in the first place?” That one shut Jared up soundly. 

~*~

The passengers in business class were getting visibly more nervous by the minute. The turbulence was still heavy, and the flight attendants were very busy calming their charges down. Mike was once again in business class. He figured the men in first class knew how to behave, and was currently on his way to the two boys flying alone. 

Dean and Samuel were clearly beyond scared when he reached their seats. 

“Hey there, how’re you doing?” Dean just looked at him incredulously. Sam had attached himself to his brother’s side and not even his face was showing. Mike tried to make up something to help calm the boys down. “Think of it like a rollercoaster. Do you like roller coasters?”

“Not anymore,” was Dean’s answer. His reply just showed how scared he really was, no matter how composed he tried to appear because his little brother was so shaken. 

“Yeah, I understand that. To be honest, they made me sick all the time too. Let’s try to play a game. Okay?” Dean nodded, Sam didn’t react. “Hey, Sammy, you with me too?” That got Samuel’s attention. He looked up pouting.

“It’s Sam…or Samuel.” 

God, you’re so cute, kid. “Okay, Sam. You with me too? You ready to play a game?” Sam reluctantly nodded. “Then here’s the plan. You close your eyes tightly, count very slowly up to ten, and then make the funniest face you can imagine before you open your eyes again. Whoever laughs first, loses…best out of five wins, okay? I’ll come back and check who won. Good plan?” Mike could clearly see the doubt in Dean’s eyes, but the boy played along for the sake of his brother.

“’kay.”

“Good…so start playing. I’ll be back soon.” Straightening up, he bumped into someone and found Mr. Welling behind him. “Mr. Welling you should be strapped into your seat,” Mike chided, slightly flustered. 

“Yeah…I will be again, any minute. Just thought the boys could probably use a referee.” Saying that, he winked at Mike and took a seat across the aisle from the boys, strapping himself in again. Mike didn’t need long to understand the purpose behind his actions.

“Thanks, sir.”

“No problem. I know how it feels for a kid to be alone on a plane with a bumpy ride. Never liked it.” Mike just nodded at this piece of information. He looked for Mr. Welling’s assistant and saw him glare in their direction. That almost made him grin. It seemed the boss was way nicer than this Hartley guy. 

But he had no time to think too long about it. The plane shook and jumped dangerously once again. 

“You should probably find a safe place too.” Welling provided. 

“I will…as soon as I’m sure everyone else is safe.” There were still people left who weren’t strapped in. When the luggage began to fall out of the over head compartments, Mike started to get really worried about his last flight. 

~*~


	4. Chapter 4

Jensen had real problems getting back out of the nerve centre where they’d left Weatherly’s body as the turbulence became worse by the minute. He’d checked the corpse once more, as thoroughly as he was able without overstepping his boundaries, and had finally found something suspicious that he didn’t like in the slightest. 

Under the collar of his shirt Weatherly had two small wounds next to each other; directly where the carotid artery travelled up into the brain. It looked like a snake bite, and Jensen was now truly worried. 

“Found something, agent Ackles?” Murray asked from his seat. Jensen definitely didn’t intend to tell him the truth. He wanted to be wrong too much. 

“Not really.”

“It’s strange, nevertheless.” Murray prodded at Jensen’s evasiveness.

“I know. But I still think it’s a coincidence.” Lie, Jensen. Really bad lie. But he couldn’t tell these people what he feared the most. It wouldn’t help anything, except almost certainly provoking a panic. “You’re all right with this on your own?” He asked, seeing how hard Murray was fighting with the helm. 

“There’s no one out there who can help me. I’ll manage.”

“How long until we’re through this turbulence?” 

“A while longer I think. Go back to your place, before you hit your precious head.” Murray snarled now. Jensen felt a slight smile tug at the corners of his mouth. He somehow liked the co-pilot.

“Aye, sir.” And with that, he left for first class.

He didn’t get far. Suddenly, the plane lurched violently, and he was literally hurled into the first class passenger area, his chest painfully meeting one of the seats. 

“Jensen!” came from both, Jeff and Jared.

“Stay where you are!” he ordered back, because the plane was still reeling dangerously, and Jensen had trouble maintaining his grip on the two seats he was lying between. A moment later the oxygen masks felt out from above the seats. “Damn it to hell, what’s going on?” he cursed, but it was nothing in comparison to the turmoil that erupted in business class all of a sudden. Oh god damn, I knew it. I knew something was wrong. 

Jensen got back on his feet with effort. The plane becoming steadier again helped, but the screaming from downstairs didn’t stop. 

“GO CHECK!” Jeff still was in his seat, close to Jared. Jensen did as he was told, almost running over a flight attendant heading for the cockpit. He wasn’t even half way there when he stopped in his tracks, horrified.

 

Kirsten made it into the cockpit with some trouble. “Chad, what’s going on? What’s up with the oxygen masks deploying?”

“Oh, I’m sorry about that. You’re not gonna believe what came out of the instrument panel!” Chad answered in an incredulous tone. What the co-pilot showed her the next moment made Kirsten speechless. “Look at this. A goddamn snake, honey. It came directly out from the instrument panel…and not just this one.” Chad held a small black red and white striped, thankfully dead, snake in his hand. 

“Oh…oh my God.” Kirsten stuttered. “What…how…it…”

“I have no idea, hon. Go back and try to calm down the passengers. I have everything under control again.” Kristen turned and did as he’d told her. 

 

But calming down the passengers was going to be a serious problem because, along with the oxygen masks, dozens of snakes had fallen out too and were now viciously attacking the people on board. 

It was what had horrified Jensen too, and made him stumble back upwards again. 

“Jensen…what the hell?” Jeff was out of his seat the moment Jensen tumbled back up the stairs, alarming Jared, who’d been staring out of the window. Jared just needed one look at Jensen to know something was terribly wrong. Jensen was pale, and seemed to have problems breathing properly. Panic attack was all that sprung to his mind. He was on his feet instantly, gripping one of the sick bags, and made his way over against the lurching and reeling of the plane.

When he approached Jensen, the usually composed man stared at him with eyes full of fear.

“Snakes…there…there are…” Jared gripped the back of Jensen’s neck and pressed the paper back against his lips, because Jensen had started to hyperventilate. He had suspected something like that, because Jensen was severely phobic about snakes, and it was the only thing Jared knew that could send him into such a state.

“Breathe, Jen…just breathe.”

“What’s going on?” Jeff was next to them now.

“Panic attack. He’s phobic about snakes. Ophidiophobia. Bitten by a rattlesnake as a small child.” Jeff started cursing, but Jared ignored him. He briefly asked himself why Morgan didn’t know. He knew Jensen had had to file it with FBI, but it was probably a security measure. “You should go and check.” The turmoil in business class was impossible to ignore. People were screaming in fear and desperation, and Jared’s insides burned at the knowledge why. It had been a very bad decision to take a regular flight. And, once more, Jensen had been right with his instincts.

“Will Jens be all right?” Morgan distracted Jared from his thoughts. 

“I’ll make sure of that. If he knows what’s coming, he can get it under control, but for the moment it’s a shock. He’ll be all right any minute.” He blocked Morgan’s view effectively now, knowing well Jensen that wouldn’t want the other man to see him right now. 

“’kay.” And with that, Morgan disappeared. The moment he was gone, Jared pulled Jensen closer and felt his head slump against his shoulder, as he continued to breathe into the bag.

“Just breathe, Jen. It’s okay.” Unconsciously, his fingers started caressing Jensen’s neck. He’d seen him like this just once before; at his grandparent’s farm when they’d stumbled over a harmless snake. It had been much worse then. He could feel Jensen’s breathing evening out already, and took the paper bag away. “Better?” Jensen nodded against his shoulder, but didn’t move away, although he must’ve been able to hear the uproar downstairs by now. 

“Sorry, Jay.” If he hadn’t been so close, Jared wouldn’t have understood him, but he did. Goddamn it! You have to say that NOW? In a fit of desperation, his arms shot around Jensen’s smaller frame, and he pulled him in tightly.

“You idiot, you goddamn idiot.” The next he knew, they were kissing, and Jared realized nothing had really changed between them. It seemed an eternity before Jensen composed himself and put some distance between them, even if it was actually mere seconds.

“I need to do my job, Jay.”

“I hate your job,” Jared retorted in a childish fit, but the fervour behind it was missing. He felt desperation creeping up on him. 

“I know.” Jensen answered softly, his fingers brushing Jared’s cheek softly before he stepped back.

That hurt so damn much. Jared stared at the floor. He’d made more than one realisation in the last twenty-four hours, but acknowledging the job Jensen was doing for what it was, was one of the hardest. Nonetheless, he felt the need to do so. When he looked up, he could see the insecurity in Jensen’s eyes. He knew only too well why he’d said sorry. Jensen didn’t expect to make it, but Jared couldn’t accept that.

“Be safe, baby.” The surprise in his ex lover’s eyes was obvious, but he played along with the word game they’d made up years ago, and used every time Jensen had gone to work.

“I’ll try…just stay where you are…or all this…”

“…will be for nothing. GO.” As Jensen turned and headed down the stairs, Jared felt alone like never before. In the past, when Jensen had gone to work, he’d had his resentment and his anger, but this time all that was left was his fear. Fear for himself, the passengers on the plane, and for Jensen. 

~*~

Jensen was met with havoc when he reached business class. People were falling over each other, were being thrown out of the way by stronger ones, or just run over. He gripped the first flight attendant he could get a hold of. It was the blonde girl, Allison. 

“Where’s my partner?” He asked. 

Allison was shaking with fear. “He…he’s…he’s…” Jensen put his hands on her shoulders. 

“Shhh…calm down, girl. These people need your help.” She nodded, her eyes wide with terror. Jensen put on his strongest mask, and smiled. “Everything will be all right. We’ll make it, but I need you to be strong…okay?” He could see his words working on her. “Where’s my partner?”

“Moving backwards into the plane, killing snakes with his taser.” 

Jensen clapped her shoulder. “Thanks Allison. Now I need you to gather as many passengers as possible here in the front” Up until now there were no snakes to be seen in the front area of the plane, and as far as he could see, the snakes were coming from the passenger area in the back. “And you need to find something you can use as weapon.” 

“Okay.” Allison nodded, much more composed, and started doing as he’d told her to. Jensen took a deep breath and faced his worst nightmare, entering a room full of snakes. 

~*~

Lauren was panicked. Bella, her beloved little Chihuahua, had run off and she couldn’t find her.

“Bella, Bella, come back. Bella.” Lauren ran desperately down the aisle and called for her dog. To the left and right of her people tried to escape the snakes and she screamed as one ugly orange snake headed in her direction, hitting it with her handbag. “Bella! Bella, come to mommy. Please, Bella.” She found her Chihuahua yipping fiercely between two seat rows, hauling it in her arms. “Bad girl. Bad, bad girl.”

“Come to the front. There aren’t any snakes there. It’s safe.” Lauren heard someone calling, and tried to move towards to the front, but the plane was still lurching heavily due to the turbulence, and she was hurled against the lavatory doors, losing consciousness. 

 

Dean ripped another snake away from his shaking brother, and shoved him to the floor between the seat rows, looking out for any danger. Nice Mr. Welling was out of sight, because the adults had stormed like mad through the aisles, shoving and pushing at each other, as though this would help them to get to safety faster. Dean was scared to death, but he needed to stay calm, needed to protect Sammy. 

He could feel his brother’s hands pulling at his t-shirt and he slung his arms around Sam’s slim shoulders. 

“Will we die, Dean?” Sammy cried against his shoulder.

“NO.” Dean refused that thought vehemently. “I’ll never let you die, Sammy.” 

“But the snakes…” Sammy stated the obvious, as usual. 

“I won’t let a damn snake get to you, Sammy.” He wrapped himself around his brother, as if to prove his words. They had to wait until the adults were gone, then he would be able to make his way to the front with Sammy. 

The snake came out of nowhere. Dean had neither the time, nor the room, to react properly. All he could do was to make sure Sammy was shielded, and so the reptile hit the arm protecting his brother. He groaned from the pain. Sammy was instantly alarmed. 

“Dean.” He turned his head, and found himself face to face with the snake that had just bitten his brother, before it disappeared under the seats again. “DEEEAAANNN. NOOOO.”

 

Katie held on tightly to her daughter Ruby. She knew she had to stay calm, for both their sakes. Choosing the side where there weren’t that many panicked people anymore, she made it to the lavatories. In the hope of finding a safe place, she opened one of the doors, but there was no safety, there was just a snake spitting at her and making her stumble back, so she moved on, having heard the call from the front; that it would be safe there.

Ruby cried in her arms and she held her tighter. “Shhhh sweetie, it’ll be all right. It’ll all be okay again.” She whispered in her daughter’s ear, but another tilt of the plane made her lose her footing and threw her to the ground. Protecting her daughter, she hit her head hard enough to lose consciousness. 

 

“Damn, I lost the boys.” Tom Welling tried to withstand the pressure of the people running for safety, his assistant Justin by his side again. 

“Does it matter? MOVE.”

“Justin, they’re alone.” 

“Not my damn problem.” Justin shoved a woman aside recklessly, making his way to the front. Tom just looked at him incredulously and turned his eyes back to the rear passenger area, looking for the two boys, but he couldn’t see them. Desperate, he helped the woman Justin had pushed out of his way back to her feet and guided her to safety, not looking at the poor people who had been bitten already, either dead or writhing in agony. 

On his way to the front, he saw Justin lying screaming beneath a dead couple in a row, struggling to come free again, but he didn’t look twice. He clearly needed to make some changes within his staff and that thought didn’tz go away, as Justin made it shaking to the safe area.

 

John Glover made his way to the front safely, without a second look at the people he shoved out of his way. He would make it out of here alive, and that was all that mattered to him. 

~*~

Jeff was climbing over the seat rows one by one, and killing every damn snake that he came across with his taser. He couldn’t believe what was happening. He’d dealt with a lot of shit in his career, but a plane full of undoubtedly venomous snakes hadn’t been anything he’d come across. That was something entirely new. He cursed continuously, trying to avoid looking at the poor people who’d had already fallen victim to the snakes. 

“Move to the front,” he told those who were still upright and able to move. “And try not to walk on the floor. Stay up on the seats if possible.” He saw a young man making his way to the front, hitting the snakes approaching him with his laptop, and then his eyes landed on Jensen, a little behind, but making his way in the same direction he was headed. “JENS…are you mad?”

“It’s okay…Jeff. I’ve got it under control now.” It didn’t really look that way, but Jeff had to accept his statement. They needed to save as many people as possible.

“Where’s Padalecki?” 

“First class…and he’ll stay there. Move, Jeff, we need to get out of here.” 

 

“Michael, are those two boys here?” Tom grabbed the bald flight attendant the moment he saw him. Mike looked at him, horrified, as realisation hit. 

“Has anybody seen two boys in here?” He yelled. They were all gathered at the front of the plane now, fighting the snakes off as efficiently as possible. Kirsten had even micro waved one, and handbags could be really deadly to snakes. 

There was no positive response from anyone, and Tom turned. “”I’ll go back to check.”

“No, you won’t, you’re a passenger. AGENT ACKLES!!!” He screamed into the passenger area, knowing both agents were out there, but liking Jensen Ackles better somehow. 

“What is it, Mr. Rosenbaum?” The answer came instantly.

“There are two boys missing, eleven and seven years old. They were in the row before the service rooms in the back.” Mike could see Agent Ackles hurriedly making his way there. He and Tom watched as the man disappeared between the last two rows. Moments later, he appeared again with the two boys in his arms. 

“Make your way back…and damn well stay there.” Morgan shouted at him. 

“Thank God.” Tom surprised Mike as he hastily made his way forwards to help the man. 

“Damn, Mr. Welling,” he cussed, following.

“It’s Tom.” That soundly shut Mike up, and made him blush. Tom meanwhile grabbed one of the boys from the agent. It was Sammy, and he struggled to get back to his brother.

“Dean…” To Mike’s absolute surprise, agent Ackles’ hand snatched reassuring for the boy’s. 

“It’s alright, Sammy, I’m coming too, and Dean will be okay.” The older boy was visibly in pain. They brought the boys to safety, and Tom took charge of Dean too, while Ackles took over command. 

“We need to build a barrier between the snakes and us. Grab everything from the overheads and under the seats and let’s built a wall. Let’s go.” The flight attendants instantly started doing what he was suggesting, and some of the passengers helped. Agent Ackles was guarding the second aisle, seeing as his partner was still out there. Mike didn’t question him. He’d proved himself capable by saving the boys. 

~*~

When Lauren came too, she saw herself confronted with an aisle full of snakes, protected only by the madly yipping Bella. 

“Oh my God.” She started crawling backwards. Searching for a hold wherever she could find it. The next thing she knew, a dead woman was falling on her. Lauren started screaming, as Bella yipped even more madly. 

That was what alerted Jeff. He’d almost been on his way back, having not seen her, as Lauren was on Jensen’s side of the passenger area. 

“Stay calm, lady. Stay calm, and get up on the seats. I’ll come over.” He made his way through the seat rows and over to the panicked woman. At least she’d done what he had told her, her handbag sized dog tightly clasped in her arms. 

“Jeff, you need help?” He heard Jensen calling from the front.

“You stay where you are, boy,” he ordered sternly. It might be that Jensen had his fear under control at the moment, but what if he lost it again? He wasn’t sure he could deal with that situation alone. Padalecki had seemed to know what to do at least. 

Jeff reached the woman, and felt himself grabbed in a fierce grip, the dog whining with the force. 

“It’s okay, lady. It’s okay now.” Just to spite his words, he had to kill another snake with his taser. “Come one, let’s make our way back.” They started slowly climbing back to the front, Jeff constantly aware of the snakes around them. On the carpet in the aisle they writhed and hissed en masse now. 

It was impossible to doubt that this was an attack anymore. No way was this coincidence. Damn Jensen and his instincts. As if it were his partner’s fault that he was right once more. Jeff huffed at himself. They would make it out of this. They had control now. “Come one, we’re almost there,” he encouraged the shaky woman climbing in front of him. 

A moment later, Jensen held out his hand and pulled her to safety, before reaching for Jeff.

“Come on man, I don’t know how long I can fight them off anymore without going crazy.” Jeff more felt it than saw it when something hit his lower leg, and a burning sensation spread upwards from there.

“Fuck.” He could see Jensen’s eyes widen in horror. He forcefully pulled him into the boarding area.

“Someone close this off here.” Jeff stumbled to the stairs, falling down there, Jensen next to him, ripping his pants apart. Jeff didn’t look. He didn’t want to. “I need something sharp. People who’ve been bitten, please make sure someone can get access to the wounds. Is there anyone else here who has experience with snake bites?” 

“Jens, the boy…you need to help the boy first,” Jeff snarled tightly at him, looking over his head. Tom Welling was crouching against a wall, the two boys by his side. Sammy was crying and clutching at Dean once more. Jensen knew Jeff was right, but was reluctant. He needed his partner.

“Jensen, I…” Jensen looked up the stairs, seeing Jared crouching there.

“You stay where you are,” he ordered, but turned to Mike.

“Could you take agent Morgan upstairs to first class? Jared can take care of him.” He didn’t need to look to know both men were glaring at him now. “I’ll look at Dean first, and then work my way through the other victims.”

“Sure.” Mike helped Jeff to his feet; he was still fairly stable and could walk. Jensen wished he’d seen the snake to know how much danger his partner was in. He was no specialist, but he was one of those people who tried to know everything about the subject of their fear, and had some knowledge.

“Jay, please don’t forget the…”

“Oil…I know Jensen. You drilled me.” He was already halfway down the stairs and gripped Jeff’s other arm to help Mike. Jensen scowled at him, but was distracted by Allison. 

“Agent Ackles, this is the only sharp object I could find.” She held one off her earrings in her fingers. 

“It will do. Could I have the other one too, please? And some olive oil or something like that…and a cup.” 

Allison took her other earring out. “Sure, and I’ll bring you the oil right away.” 

Jensen turned to the stairs once more. “Jared!” Jared appeared on the stairs again, and Jensen threw him Allison’s earring before making his way over to Tom Welling and the boys. 

“How’re you feeling, Dean?”

Dean held his arm and looked up at Jensen with bleary eyes. “Not so good.”

“I’ll be honest, this will hurt Dean. But I need to get at least a part of the poison out of your system. Could you tell your brother to go with Allison for a moment, after she brings me the oil?” Samuel looked angry at this suggestion, but Dean clearly had some inkling of what was coming.

“I’ll be all right, Sam. Please do what Mr. Ackles says.”

“But, Dean…”

“NO, Sam.” Dean’s tone had changed, and Jensen could see the same surprise in Tom Welling’s face as he felt. He sounded strong and reassuring at the same time. Sam undoubtedly wasn’t happy, but when Allison came with the oil he did as he was told, throwing Jensen a dark look, before going with her. 

“Okay…you need to be brave now, Dean, but I know you can do it. Everything will be all right.” He exchanged another look with Tom Welling, and saw him tightening his grip on the boy, turning his head aside a little. Steeling himself, he cut into the swelling around the snake bite without another warning. Dean hissed, but held still. Jensen couldn’t help but admire the boy.

Minutes later, he was done, and Kristin took care of the cut with the first aid kit, while Jensen moved to the next victim. 

 

Upstairs in first class, Jared wasn’t as careful as Jensen, not by any means. He knew he had to help Morgan, but that didn’t change the fact that he disliked the older man intensely.

“Hold still or I’ll cut too deep,” was his only warning as he set the earring on the skin. 

“Careful, boy,” Morgan grumbled and twitched a little. 

Jared didn’t hesitate. “Could you hold him, Mike?” Mike looked at the older agent sceptically, before gripping his leg. 

“Okay…I’ll cut now.” The sharp edge of the earring sliced the skin and Morgan stiffened. Jared made a cut deep enough to draw blood and lymph before he rinsed his mouth with the oil. He was all set to suck the poison from the cut, when Morgan jerked away. 

“Hey man, you want me to do this, or do you want to die even faster? Honestly, I have no real wish to suck your hairy leg.” Jared griped.

“No way? I thought you’d love that!” Morgan sounded stressed.

“I would love to leave the poison where it is, but Jen would be pissed. So hold still, or I’ll knock you out.”

“You wish.”

Once again, if look’s could kill... “Bet on it.” With no further comment, Jared bent down and did what Jensen expected of him. 

When he was done, he dashed to the service room, Mike close on his heels for the first aid kit. “Now I need something really strong, if you wouldn’t mind?” He told the flight attendant. 

Mike chuckled quietly. “You can get what you want as soon as I’m done. Man, I really thought you were going to bite him.” 

“It was close.”

“Without a doubt. I’ll be right back.” Mike disappeared again, but Jared stayed where he was, tempted to spit, because he was sure he still felt Morgan’s body hair in his mouth.

~*~

“Do you hear that?” Sera stood next to the wall of bags and backpacks, gripping Allison’s arm.

Allison strained her ears, trying to detect what she meant. She needed a moment, but then she looked at the senior flight attendant, horrified. “The baby.” 

Katie Cassidy and her daughter Ruby hadn’t been with the passengers who’d made it to safety. They’d all automatically assumed they’d fallen victim to the snakes, but now both Sera and Allison heard the baby cry. Without another word, they started to tear down the wall between the safe front area, and the snake infected back area. 

“Stay back, Alli.” Sera took a look around, before making the first step out in the back area.

“Sera, no, I won’t let you go out there alone.” Allison grabbed Sera’s arm. 

“You wait here in case something happens to me. And watch out for these damn reptiles. We don’t need them in the front to.” And with that, Sera made her way slowly out into the aisle, looking for the baby.


	5. Chapter 5

Katie’s head hurt when she came back to consciousness. She sat up carefully and rubbed her forehead. Slightly confused, she looked around. Thankfully, there were no snakes close at that moment. The lack of frantically moving victims had caused the reptiles to retreat a little. Katie’s arms automatically closed around her chest and the scarf she had Ruby tucked in, only to realize her baby was gone.

“Ruby, Ruby no.” Katie was on her feet in a moment, only to jump again when a flight attendant touched her arm.

“Shhhh. I hear her. She must be close.” Katie calmed down with a visible effort. The next moment she could hear it too. Together with Sera she made her way down the aisle in direction of the crying, that had now changed to quiet babbling, and the sound of Ruby’s baby rattle. 

Sera was the first to see the baby, and she was horrified. Ruby sat on the ground between two seat rows, playing quietly with her rattle. Directly opposite her was a lurking rattlesnake. Sera moved carefully closer, giving Katie a sign that she’d found the baby. “Oh my God, Oh my God, oh my God…” she mumbled almost inaudibly, moving slowly closer. The snake advanced equally slowly on the child, rearing up and preparing for attack. 

The moment Sera was close enough to grab Ruby, she reached for the child and pulled her into her arms. She almost made it out from between the seats, but then the snake attacked. Sera could feel the fangs sink into her shoulder and groaned, but didn’t let go of Ruby. 

“Oh thank God, Ruby. Thank God.” Katie took Ruby from Sera. “Thank you so much, Ma’am. Thank you so much…” and then the young mother recognized the pained expression on Sera’s face. “You okay?” she asked, instantly worried. Sera clasped her arm.

“We need to go back to safety. Come on, hurry.” Sera had problems standing straight. Her shoulder burned like fire, and she could feel Katie’s arm around her waist, helping her walk. Allison advanced on them too.

“Sera…Sera, are you okay?” she asked, worried. 

“She’s been bitten.” Katie had seen the blood on Sera’s back by now. 

“KRISTIN, MIKE…help us.” Allison took over Sera’s weight from Katie. Sera was getting weaker by the second, and was stumbling over her own feet. Kristin took her other arm, and Mike turned on his heel the moment he realized what had happened. 

“Agent Ackles!” Jensen was busy getting the poison from a snake bite on a young woman’s thigh. 

“Just a moment. I’m almost done. ” But Mike had already found himself with an armful of cute little baby. 

“I’ll look at it. I can do it too, everyone could if they just wanted to.” Katie seemed upset, and Mike could see the faces of some people in the seats facing them change colour. “Sit down Ma’am.” Kristin and Allison helped Sera sit down on the ground. Katie knelt behind her, pulling her blouse from the skirt, but on seeing the bite, she started to doubt the flight attendant had a chance. The poison was already spreading under the skin, forming ugly blue bruises. 

“Oh good Lord…” Kristin gasped, and avoided Sera’s searching eyes. 

“That bad, huh?” Sera asked without needing an answer. She could already feel the poison burning her up. 

“What kind of snake was it?” Jensen appeared next to them, exchanging a look with Katie. The poison had spread way too far already through the thin tissue of Sera Gamble’s shoulder.

“Rattle…rattle snake…” Katie stuttered. Jensen felt himself shudder, overwhelmed by distant memories. 

“Lay her down, and give her lots of water to drink. And watch the bleeding into the skin.” Kristin and Allison did what he said, and Mike straightened up.

“I need to tell Chad,” and with that, he turned and headed for the phone. 

Jensen looked at Katie. “You can look out for the people down here?” 

She nodded. “Yeah. I think so. I’ll do what I can.”

“People bitten need…”

“…lot’s of water and to lie down, and if the bite is swollen too much, I’ll cut it…I got the drill every time I went hiking with my dad.” She gave a small smile, and Jensen nodded before going up to first class too. 

 

Upstairs, the mood was gloomy. Jeff lay stretched on a seat, its’ back reclined as far as possible. His legs were propped on the seat opposite. Two small bottles of water stood on a tray next to him.

“Jeff, you’re supposed to drink that water, not let it getting warm.” Jensen took a look at the wound on Jeff’s leg. 

“I’m not so sure it really helped a lot.” Jared had appeared next to him, looking a little unhappy about his statement. 

“You tried. I couldn’t have done better.” Jensen reassured him. He knew how slim their chances were. The victims needed anti venom as quickly as possible, and that was very difficult with them stuck on the plane. 

“It’s a damn cluster fuck.” Jeff grumbled this moment. “We didn’t find the reptiles because they’re cold blooded. Not as if you didn’t know that…after what you friend here told me.”

“It’s the last thing I would’ve expected, Jeff.” Jensen defended himself.

“No one could expect something like this, Jens. It’s the most fucked up shit I’ve ever seen. Lehne is a sick bastard.” That was nothing new, but they couldn’t waste time thinking about it. They had to think about coming out of it alive.

“How’re you feeling?”

“Tired and dizzy.” Jensen exchanged a look with Jared. Without a word, Jared took one of the water bottles, opened it, and held it in front of Jeff’s face. Jeff glared at him, but took the bottle and started sipping the water. 

“I need to talk to the co-pilot.” Chad had hastened through the area some minutes ago to get down into business class. “We will make it out of here,” he tried to reassure his partner and his charge, but it sounded hollow even to his ears.

“Good luck.” Jensen saw Jared scowl at Jeff’s pessimistic answer, but didn’t comment on it. No matter how much he hoped they’d make it, there was no way to be sure. 

Jensen didn’t need to look for Chad for long. The co-pilot was already on his way upstairs again as he reached the stairs. “We need to figure something out here,” he started, only to be instantly interrupted.

“Oh...all right, but you’re the last person I need at the moment.” Chad snapped at him. “I know what I need to figure out here as fast as possible. We’re in a 200 foot long steel tube, and we’re 30,000 foot in the air. And any of those slimy little pieces of shit can trip a circuit, or a relay, or the hydraulics, and this bird will go down faster than a Thai hooker. So my job is to keep LAX informed how totally screwed we are, and then to find a way to keep this mother in the sky for another two hours….SO…figure that out, dude.” And with that, the co-pilot turned and stormed back to the cockpit. 

Jensen took a deep breath. He had to stay calm. It was his job. Rely on what you’ve learned. Go through the motions. He felt Jared’s eyes on him and knew it would be difficult, but he had to distance himself to get a grip on this. Next to the pilot, he was the only one able to do anything. There were things to do, rescue to be organized, and SAC needed to know what was happening here. He breathed deeply once more, looking at Jared.

“You make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. I need to talk to SAC Ferris.” Jeff glared at him, and Jared’s brows disappeared under his too long fringe, the sneering duh clear on his face, because there was not much else he could do. He clearly didn’t want Jensen to remind him about that fact. His attitude pissed Jensen off again, and quite frankly, that helped him to get a grip.

No matter what had happened not so long ago, the differences between them were still there, and Jared’s position on him taking charge clearly hadn’t changed. He turned and went in search for the phone, not seeing how Jared’s expression changed from sarcastic to deeply worried. 

But Jeff saw. 

 

A few minutes later, Jensen had Chris on the phone. 

“Jensen, how’s it going?” They had talked before the take off, and Jensen knew everyone in their team was on standby. They had three teams on Lehne, and as soon as Jared was in LA and talking to the District Attorney, he would be arrested. 

“No so good, Chris, not so good at all. Do you remember all these damn security scenarios we ran through? Well…I’m smack in the middle of one we didn’t think of.” Jensen answered and rubbed his eyes. He knew he needed to concentrate, but it was very difficult at the moment.

“What the hell are you talking about, Jen?” Jensen could hear the sudden worry in Chris voice, and heard a quiet click the next moment. Chris had put the phone on speaker, and by now had the attention of the whole office.

“Frederic Lehne somehow managed to fill the plane with poisonous snakes.” There was a short pause before Chris reacted. 

“Hold on…Wait a minute. What kind of insane plan is that? He can’t possibly guarantee that the snakes are gonna get to Jared.” Chris’ voice sounded disbelieving and aghast. Jensen could completely understand. 

“Yeah well, he doesn’t have to guarantee that if the snakes bring the whole plane down. And there’s a strong chance of that, if I can believe the co-pilot.” Horrified silence was his only answer for a short while. 

“How’s the situation, Agent Ackles?” That was SAC Ferris.

“We’ve lost quite a few of the passengers already, and Agent Morgan was bitten too. But he is…alive.” Jensen avoided the ‘still’. He knew about chances with snake bites, and he had seen snakes which were considered deadly in any case. The corpses in the backwards passenger area had told their own story. Everyone still alive had been lucky ‘til now.

“How serious is it?” Jensen admired Ferris for her ability to stay detached, and wished he could have that ability too. Throwing a glance back to Jared and Jeff, he answered as quietly as possibly. 

“Very, I think.”

“And how are you holding up?” Jensen hated that question, but he knew Ferris had to ask, even if there was no alternative to him anymore. The SAC was the only one on the team knowing his phobia about snakes.

“I’ve got a grip on it.”

“Good. Here’s what we do,” she took charge as always. “We’ll work out a solution to the snakes here in LA as fast as possible. You make sure the witness and the passengers stay safe. Do whatever necessary to avoid further victims, Agent Ackles, but the witness stays your first priority. We need to catch Lehne; after this one, even more than before. That’s multiple counts of murder. You know what this means. Good luck, Agent Ackles.”

“Thanks, Cap!” The line went dead, and Jensen took a deep breath for the umpteenth time. To be honest, he was very close to his energy limits in the face of their hopeless situation, and his inability to help. It just fed his insecurities at the worst possible time. He was startled from his bitter reverie by a hand on his shoulder; Jared’s. Wordlessly, Jared held a steaming cup of coffee in his face.

“Drink. Morgan said you’ve been on your feet almost 48 hours now. So just shut up and drink, and take a moment to get yourself together again.” Jensen just looked at him, before taking the cup and doing as he was told.

 

Jared watched him gulp down the coffee. He’d had another serious talk with Jeffrey Dean Morgan the moment Jensen had gone for the phone. The older agent had insistently told him to lay off again, and explained that pissing Jensen off wouldn’t work any longer, no matter how much it had probably worked in the past.

Hearing the man going on how burnt out Jensen really was had turned Jared’s attitude 180 degrees instantly, and looking at Jensen now told him Morgan was right. Jensen was pale and the fact he was confronted with snakes definitely didn’t help. Jared knew Jensen had lots of self-control, but the fear was steady in the back of his mind and drained his energy level. 

“I’m sorry about earlier, Jensen. But you should know I’d take care of Morgan and I don’t need a reminder. You have to focus, and need to think straight. You don’t need to worry about him. You can rely on me here, and I think you know that.”

Jensen didn’t look at him. “You know I do…but…I feel so fucking helpless. There’s nothing I can do…all these people down there…they…it’s…” Jared grabbed Jensen’s chin, and forced him to look in his eyes. 

“Listen to me, Jensen. I know this situation is out of your control, and I know only too well how much you hate that, but stop making it worse by tearing yourself up about it. None of this is your fault. It’s fucking Freddy’s fault. No one could have expected this. I know you care way too much. I know you go into this too deeply, you always did, but Jensen you need to keep your head clear of this right now. Scratch the guilt trip. You said it yourself; we’ll get out of this. Start believing it. I need you to. I don’t want us to end in the Pacific. There are some things that need to be worked out.” 

“Jared…” Jared didn’t let him talk.

“No, Jen. I won’t give you an easy way out. We’ll make it.” Jared knew he needed to convince himself with his words, and he knew even better that Jensen telling him their chances were slim would break him right now, as it clearly threatened to break Jensen. But there was one thing that seemingly hadn’t changed; Jensen wasn’t able to dash his hopes, and so he conceded and just nodded, a strained smile on his lips. 

And Jared forced him to hold on to hope alone. 

“Jay…”

“Yeah?”

“When Chris or Ferris call, come and get me, okay?”

“Okay…Be careful, Jen.” Jensen just looked at him.

“I’ll try.”

When he was gone, Jared mumbled almost inaudibly ‘as usual’.

~*~

In LA, the FBI team working the Lehne-case was shaken in their belief when SAC Ferris made her next announcement, coming out from her office.

“Okay, listen up people. Everybody listen up. I want a crisis team at LAX. ASAP. And I need the cargo manifest of every scrap of freight on SPA 121. And I really can’t believe I’m saying this… but I need the best poisonous snake expert in this time zone. And I need him in my ear or at my side in twenty minutes or less. Well, come on people. Let’s go. Somebody make it all happen for me.” She sent her team into frenzied activity with her words, and it was Chris whose arm she caught as he passed her. 

“Christian…Tell surveillance not to let Freddy Lehne out of their sight.” Chris had a determined set to his lips.

“That you can bet on, Ma’am.”

 

Fifteen minutes later they had found their specialist. SAC Ferris was in a car with Chris, on her way to the man. 

“His name is Dr. Chad Lindberg; a hardcore snake specialist. And uniform use him as the go-to guy in any animal smuggling cases.” Chris explained while driving.

“The go-to guy?” Samantha asked disbelieving.

“Yeah…so he must be good.” Chris just hoped this was right. They reached the building Lindberg worked in minutes later, and Samantha herself went to fetch the guy. He was just coming out of the building. Someone from the team had called him already.

“Dr. Lindberg?”

“That’s me.” The man answered, holding out his hand to Sam.

“Samantha Ferris. Special Agent in Charge.”

“I’m hoping this is important. I’ve got baby Antiguan racer’s eggs, and they’re ready to hatch.” Lindberg stated, sounding like a complete nerd.

“Really?” Samantha hadn’t a clue what he was talking about, but for him it seemed important, and she knew better than to doubt that. Humour the man, we need him, went through her head. Her case was the priority, and she would make that very clear. 

“Yeah. It’s the first time in captivity, and very exciting…” 

“Really?”

“It’s very exciting.” It was clear Lindberg meant what he was saying, and liked to talk about his speciality, but for Samantha her own ‘first’ was way more exciting; or better yet, terrifying. 

“Wow…I’ve got another very exciting first I’d like to tell you about,” she stated. They hastened over to the waiting FBI van, and not so very much later, Lindberg was a lot less excited. 

“Well all right, we’ve had less than ninety minutes, and we’ve already lost quite a few people.” Samantha had started to explain. Lindberg hacked hastily on the keys of his laptop, calling up pictures and files.

“O-kay.”

“Look, we’ve already contacted the local ER’s” Samantha tried maintain command of the situation, but Lindberg cut her off quickly. 

“Oh…the local ER’s won’t help much…I don’t think you understand the magnitude of what you’re dealing with here. LA county’s ERs can, at best, handle the occasional snake bite…not an entire 747 of them…I’m going to contact the National Poison Control Centre…to have them alert every ER in the tri-county area, and to order every available helicopter crew to be ready…We’ve got less than two hours to mobilize an entire army“ he explained.

What he said didn’t make Samantha Ferris happy in the slightest. It just confirmed the situation was worse than they’d like.

~*~

Down in business class of flight 121, the situation was escalating once again. The snakes were starting to get through the barrier the flight attendants had put up. Mike was feeling the first tendrils of panic creeping up on him, when Jensen came down the stairs.

“Try the fire extinguishers” he yelled. “…they’ll probably help.” Without hesitation, he grabbed one and held it pointed at the snakes sneaking their way through the luggage barrier. Mike followed his lead, and felt Tom at his side seconds later. The man seemingly wasn’t to about to stop if he felt the need to help.

“I admire you, man, you know that?” Mike told him. 

Tom’s calm smile shocked Mike to the core. “I’d like to make it to LA alive. I’ve got a deal to seal the day after tomorrow,” the business man just told him, aiming a fire extinguisher at a snake writhing its’ way through a gap in the luggage barrier. “Actually, this scenario inspires me greatly. I know the title of my next video game already…It will be ’Snakes on a Plane’. You want to try it out with me when it’s done?” Mike just looked at him disbelievingly, before taking up his station again and killing the next snake making its’ way into the safe area. 

 

In the meantime, Jensen tried to recruit the other flight attendants and the passengers. 

“Kristin…we need weapons. Where’s the silverware?” The dark haired girl just looked at him disbelievingly, leading him into the service rooms.

“We don’t have silverware. All we have is this.” She took a blend of a spoon and a fork from a plastic wrapper. Jensen couldn’t believe it. 

“Sporks?”

“Yeah, sorry.” Damn 9/11 Jensen cursed inwardly. He saw Kristin was thinking frantically, trying to find a solution. A moment later she grabbed a small champagne bottle and broke it on the counter. “Here, use this” she suggested. The idea wasn’t that bad. They could fix it to a stick, and use it as a distance weapon. He ordered Kristin to do it, and she started recruiting passengers to help. Suddenly, a call distracted him. 

“Jensen? JENSEN.” Jensen wasn’t very happy when he saw Jared had come down the stairs from first class.

“What is it?”

“Ferris put a snake guy on the phone who wants to speak to you,” Jared answered. Jensen hurried over to him and followed him up the stairs. “His name is Dr. Lindberg.” Jared explained, holding out the phone. Jensen took it. 

“Okay. Look doc, people are dying up here. We need help fast.” Jensen went straight for the point, no messing around. 

“Okay, just break open any blisters that form around the bites, and keep them clean” Lindberg started to tell him. 

“We’re doing that. I know to do that much, but it doesn’t seem to help much.” Jensen rubbed his forehead. He had no idea how the specialist could help them up here, but he’d take any help he could get. 

Lindberg explained further. “Snakes don’t attack unless they’re provoked. Right? Something up there is making them go crazy.” 

Jensen just thought Wow. That bit he’d known already too. He’d seen it with his own eyes. “Well shit. But they’re attacking everybody and everything up here, and they seem especially fond of these fucking leis,” he snapped. 

“Leis? Jesus, I don’t know. It could possibly be a pheromone, or some kind of drug. That’s what the female animals release to trigger the mating behaviour. It can also provoke hyper aggression.” 

It was getting better and better, and Jensen felt a serious headache creeping up on him. “Well…that’s good news… we’ve got snakes on crack. Do you have anything helpful for me here?” That comment left the doc speechless, but he got back to business fast.

“Okay. Look. There are hundreds of species of snakes with hundreds of cocktails of venom. Some…will kill you in two minutes, others in two hours, and some you can actually cure with a good night's rest…But here's the thing. If you administer the wrong anti venom...that will kill you faster than the snake bite.” Jensen’s headache started to get serious.

“Look. I’ve got some knowledge. But I’m not a zoologist, man. I can maybe identify two of the snakes I've seen up here for sure. A cobra and a rattlesnake. Okay?” He thought he’d seen a copperhead too, but he wasn’t sure. The whole bunch had made a very exotic impression on him, and all he really knew were the venomous snakes native to the States.” He’d almost expected what Lindberg said next.

“You’re going to have to be more…much more, specific than that.”

“That’s what I feared. Um…look…um. I’ll round up all the dead ones I can find, and…and I’ll call you back. Okay?”

“Make it fast. Time is tissue.”

“Time is t…??” Jensen just shook his head, hoping equally to extinguish his headache with the action, as much as forgetting Lindberg’s strange last comment. “O-k-a-y.”

“What is it?” Jared was still next to him, looking at him strangely impassively. 

“I need to round up the dead snakes.” He could see Jared try hard to suppress a grin. “Don’t you dare …” That brought out the puppy dog eyes. 

“I never would” Jared assured, as innocently as possible. It was then that they became aware of another uproar downstairs. 

 

In the business class, the situation was about to spiral out of the control of the flight attendants. 

“Who the hell is that?” It had to be John Glover who’d watched Jensen and Jared go up the stairs, and his question was directed at the unfortunate Allison, who happened to get in his way. And Glover wasn’t the only one losing his cool. Questions hailed down on the flight attendant from everywhere now.

“How could you imbeciles let somebody put snakes on this plane?” Someone asked. 

Another one demanded, “We need to turn this plane around…” 

While Lauren Cohen stated, “I don't want to die.”

Someone else declared, “We need to get the victims to a hospital…” and the flight attendants had problems to answer everything at once.

“We're almost at LA now.” Mike tried to calm the people down, but was interrupted by Justin Hartley, 

“Know what they call that? The point of no return.” The sarcasm was clear in his voice.

“So this is it? That's what the plan is?” Glover spoke up again. “We sit around here waiting for the snakes to bite us?”

Mike had had enough. “Look, everyone just calm down. Please! We’re doing the best we can here.” But Glover didn’t back off. On the contrary, he was becoming more aggressive. 

“I want to know what's going on. Who are these people in first class? Get out of the way!” Mike glared at him and felt the others, including Tom Welling, backing him up. 

“No! You guys aren’t supposed to go up there.”

“Move out of the way, man!” 

Mike didn’t. “You can’t take the stairs!” Kristin and Allison stood next to him now. 

“You can‘t keep us down there,” Glover threatened, and made good on the threat the next minute. He shoved Mike and the girls out of his way, backed up by Justin Hartley and a few others. Mike and the crew had no choice but to get out of the way, at least not if they didn’t want to get hurt or run over. 

“I’m sorry.” Mike heard Tom Welling say, before he saw the man taking the stairs too, but Mike was fairly sure he was apologising for Hartley’s behaviour, and was trying to get the situation under control. He motioned Kristin and Allison to stay down, and followed the angry passengers upstairs. The crowd had reached first class and were confronted by Agent Ackles, whose hand was suspiciously tucked behind his back, but Glover was blind with rage and anger. 

“Who the hell are you, and why exactly are there snakes on this plane?” he asked.

“I’m agent Jensen Ackles of the FBI, and I don’t have the time to explain.” Jensen didn’t want to deal with an angry mob now. He had enough problems at the moment, but he knew the situation was dangerous, and he had to do his best to diffuse it. 

“Well you’d better make time, agent” Glover demanded. “You’ve put us at risk, and you're gonna tell us why.” Jensen knew the man had a point, even if he didn’t like it, but he was worried about the consequences. The atmosphere was heated, and the chances that an explanation would cause it to escalate were almost certainly close to fifty-fifty. 

“What I’m gonna tell you…is to go back downstairs right now.” It was clearly the wrong answer.

“Man. Who the hell do you think you are?” Justin Hartley weighed into the discussion, and literally jumped in Jensen’s face. That brought Jared into the game. ‘Til now he’d been behind Jensen, but now he blocked the mob on instinct, exchanging an apologetic look with Jensen. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa…okay, look, the snakes are on the plane because...I’m supposed to testify against Frederic Lehne in LA. At least that’s what we think.”

“Oh Jesus Christ, we're all dead.” Glover gasped, and Jensen had had enough. 

“Not me. None of us.” He took his position at the front, not happy about Jared’s actions in the slightest. “We’re all still alive. And I’ll make sure we’ll stay that way. It's my job to handle life-and-death situations on a daily basis. It’s what I do, and I’m very good at it…Now you can stand there and be the panicked angry mob, and blame him, me and the government for getting you into this…But if you want to survive tonight, you need to save your energy and start working together.” He stared at John Glover, who back at him threateningly, but stayed quiet. Hartley seemed to want to say something, but he was silenced by a commanding look from his boss. 

Jensen was beginning to like Tom Welling more and more. His quiet but strong willed personality agreed with him a lot. Seeing the argument was calming down, he continued. “Now, here is what we need to do. It’s immensely important to find all the dead snakes we can, so that the doctors on the ground will know what kind of anti venoms we need. Whatever you find, you bring it to me,” he explained “And I don't need to tell you to be careful.”

The answering murmuring was still a little angry, but at least passengers did what he’d asked.


	6. Chapter 6

The moment the last person had disappeared down the staircase, Jared felt himself gripped by his shirt and shoved down into a seat, Jensen directly in his face. 

“Stop that! Okay…I know what you’re trying to do…and I understand, but you’re my charge, Jared. You’re a witness in an important case, and I’m responsible for getting you to LA. You CAN’T interfere with my job. You CAN’T get in front of me, just because I’m threatened. It’s my job to control this situation, and no matter what you think about my job, I’m good at it.”

“Jensen, that’s not…”

“JUST stop it. I know you feel helpless and guilty. Believe me, I know how that feels, but if you really want to help me, I need you to do what I say. I need you to stay out of danger, no matter what AND I need you to stay out of my way. My job is a lot less difficult if you stop interfering with it. UNDERSTAND?” Jared pursed his lips and stared coldly at Jensen’s face, not answering.

“Jared…did you understand what I just said?” Jensen asked again. 

A stiff nod was all Jared was able to manage. He wanted to scream at Jensen, tell him that he needed all the help he could get, and that he, Jared, was able to help, but at the moment he just felt pissed that Jensen didn’t want his help.

It felt like another rejection, and it hurt. Jensen straightened up and put some distance between them, and Jared stared out of a window. There were valid points in Jensen’s speech that he knew were right. He felt helpless and guilty, but it pissed him off no end that he couldn’t even be allowed any say in the situation. 

He could deal with Jensen being in charge, he almost always had been in the past. On the other hand Jared’s physical build had often diffused heady situations, due to his presence alone, and he was sure it’d worked this time too. There weren’t many people as tall and built as he was. Hartley had backed off instantly, but it was clear Jensen hadn’t appreciated his help, even though they were on the same side. 

“It’s about authority.” Morgan spoke up then, and Jared realised Jensen had once again left. 

“I don’t think I want to hear your opinion on the matter. There’s no doubt that Agent Ackles doesn’t want any help.” Morgan chuckled hoarsely. 

“I can’t even imagine how life was with the both of you. Were you always that prissy?”

Jared glared at the older agent. “I’m not prissy.”

“Oh yes, you are. Listen, boy. I know you don’t like me, and I’m sure you won’t take any advice from me…but nevertheless, I will have my say. Wait until this is over…there’s no other chance to make Jens listen to you. When he’s at work, his job always comes first, no matter what. I thought you’d know that.” 

Jared pretended not to listen, but he had to give it to Morgan. He was right on the button; Jensen’s job always came first. He should have remembered that, and now he was Jensen’s job. If you looked at it from Jensen’s angle, from his point of view as an FBI agent, that snub had been necessary, whether Jared had liked it or not. There was just one problem; Jared wasn’t very good at looking at things from Jensen’s point of view, and that was a realization he didn’t like in the slightest. It had broken them apart once already, and now it was up to Jared’s to make it right.

~*~

Chad’s eyes were on the instrument panel and his control vane. He was totally unaware of his surroundings. The flying conditions weren’t the best. The weather still made it difficult to hold the plane steady. He was shocked out of his concentration when he heard a snake hiss, but it was way too late. It was already about to attack and hit him in the forearm. He groaned, pained, and tried to get the animal off, but it wouldn’t let go of him. 

Panicked, he got out of his seat, fighting to get away from the damn reptile, but it didn’t help him. The snake held on to his arm, and no matter what he did, it wouldn’t let go. Scared to death, Chad stumbled backwards, completely oblivious to the fact that the trap door down to the nerve centre was still open. 

He had no chance falling down there, the snake still with its’ fangs in his arm – and the plane was now without a pilot.

~*~

In business class, the passengers rounded up any dead snakes they could find. In no time at all, Jensen was ready to call Dr. Lindberg again. The description of the snakes was way more difficult than he’d expected. There clearly were too many shades to the colour green. 

“Okay, Doc. The one I’ve got here is…um... I would say brownish on top and…and green on the bottom, I think.” Damn, I’m not sure this will get us anywhere. Dr. Lindberg’s next question confirmed his suspicions. 

“Okay…Wait a second. Is it a pure green? Or is it going into blue?” he tried to specify. 

“Um…well…if I had to guess, I’d say green.” The fluorescent light of the plane didn’t help in the slightest with this guessing game. Jensen was actually thankful for the help when Mike piped up. 

“No, no, no. It’s not pure green. It’s teal. It’s a deep shade of teal,” he provided. Jensen looked at him critically, but gave his judgement to the Doc. 

“It’s…it’s teal. Doc.” Whatever teal is. He was thankful for any suggestions. 

It was Lauren Cohen who disrupted his musings. “Why don't we just take a picture?” she asked, and found herself the condescending focus of one John Glover instantly. 

“Oh sure. Let's drop it off at Jiffy photo when we land, Einstein,” he sneered at her. Lauren just looked at him haughtily. 

“Ever heard of e-mail, dick-wad? We can take pictures with my phone and e-mail them to the doc…if I’m allowed to turn it on?” The phone was currently turned off, as flight regulations prescribed. Jensen was infinitely thankful for her solution. 

“Doc, I’m gonna e-mail you some pictures. All right?” he could hear Lindberg’s relief in his answer. 

“That’s probably the best.” The doc gave his e-mail address, and Jensen hung up the satellite phone, before he started taking pictures of dead snakes with Lauren Cohen. 

 

Mike was startled out of watching the proceedings when he felt something roll against his foot. Irritated, he saw a soft drink can roll over the floor. We’re descending… that can’t be good. Hastily he went upstairs to the cockpit, only to find it empty. 

“Chad?...Chad, where are you?” The control vane wobbled around, unsupervised, and Chad was nowhere to be seen. “Chad!” Mike tried again, before he took a look down into the nerve centre, but there was nothing to see there either. He’d luckily just moved backwards, away from the opening, when the snake struck from the opening. Mike stumbled away from the door, shocked, but the reptile continued to come at him. 

“Oh goddamn…” Mike scrambled away. He didn’t want to think about what had happened to the co-pilot, since the reptile had come from below. Hissing furiously, the snake advanced on him. Mike was close to panic, and did his best to get away. 

When the snake was directly at the trapdoor, he took a chance and hurled the lid down, but the reptile was too fast and escaped. “You damn fucker, I’ll show you.” Mike’s fingers found the safety axe on the wall. He took it with both hands and started striking at the animal. Again and again, the damn thing escaped, but every missed hit just fuelled Mike’s determination. 

 

In the meantime, the descent of the plane didn’t go unnoticed by others. First was Samuel Winchester, who asked Katie Cassidy,

“Are we landing? There are no lights down there…” He sat with his feverish brother and Katie in the first row. 

Katie reached for his hand. “I don’t think so,” she tried to calm the still very upset boy, only to see another can rolling in direction of the front way too fast. Scared once more, she clasped Ruby tightly, and looked around for a flight attendant, or agent Ackles.

Jensen was on the phone again, telling the Doc the mails were on their way, when the plane lurched heavily all over again. He started cursing and let the phone be. For the second time, panicked screaming echoed through the passenger area. 

“Everybody buckle up now!...Hurry!” Jensen ordered. People tried to get to a seat, and he could see Katie clutching the baby and the boys beside her. With difficulty, he made his way to the section with the stairs. 

Something had to be wrong. The plane was going down, and Jensen suddenly feared that the co-pilot had been right. What if they’d damaged the plane? What if we have no chance anymore?…NO…damnit, NO. He reached the stairs and almost had to crawl up them to make it to the cockpit door. Hacking in the security code, he ripped the door open, just to almost get his head taken off by an axe swing.

Mike was fighting a snake, and right at that moment, he succeeded, chopping the animal in two. “HA...told you, you fucker…Take this.” Another strike mashed the head into a bloody pulp. 

“Wow” Jensen uttered, before he saw the empty seats. “Where’s the pilot?” Jensen hurriedly stepped in, closing the door behind him.

“I have no idea…” Mike answered, looking a little mad. He was obviously pumped up on adrenalin, and Jensen could understand that, but when he saw the unobserved control vane, he forgot everything else. 

“We need to pull this thing up…right now.” Jensen was in the pilot’s seat quickly; Mike following his example just as quickly. 

“Oh my fucking God…” Mike continued cursing, while the RT unit blared the first warning. 

“Hula 1-2-1 heavy. You’re descending through 23,000 feet.” The voice of Jim Beaver from LAX sounded more than worried. Mike fumbled with the seat belt.

“There's no time to strap in. Just pull up. And pull hard!” Jensen commanded, gripping the control vane. They tried their best, but the plane descended further. “GOD DAMN…” Jensen pulled harder, gritting his teeth, and another warning came from the RT. 

“Hula 1-2-1. Heavy. You're now below 19,000 feet. Do you copy?” They had no time to answer, both way too occupied with trying to save the plane, but it wasn’t looking good. 

“It's not working.” Mike grated through his teeth. Jensen didn’t want to hear his opinion on the matter. 

“Just don’t stop pulling up, Mike…we’ll make it…we have to. Just PULL.” and LA tower didn’t stop warning. 

“Hula 1-2-1. Heavy. Pull up. Pull up.”

 

“Somebody help me!”

Jared heard the call for help from the business class, sitting strapped in to his seat next to Morgan. He was almost sure it was one of the flight attendants. Without further consideration, he ripped off his belt and jumped up.

“What the hell are you doing.” Morgan was sitting up too, and grabbed his arm. The look Jared threw him was murderous.

“Can’t you hear her? Do you want even more victims on this plane?” He pulled free regardless, and stumbling, made his way to the stairs. The descent of the plane was getting steeper, and he had to ask himself if they even had a chance left. Whatever…I won’t watch people dying anymore. 

“Please…Somebody help. They're coming through.” It was the dark haired girl, Kristin, and she was desperately trying to keep up the barrier to the back up area. The number of snaked writhing through the barrier was increasing. 

“I’m coming…” Jared almost fell down the last few stairs when the plane reeled again, but it was lucky, because from the corner of his eye, he saw the service trolley break loose and roll rapidly down the aisle. 

“Look out!” he grabbed the girl around her waist, throwing them both aside. “You okay?” 

Kristin tried to get up. “Yeah.” She was pushing back against his hold, seeing the snakes still coming on. 

Jared’s mind was made up in a split second. “We gotta get the people upstairs. It’s safer there.” He jumped on his feet, pulling the girl up with him. 

The moment the passengers realized what was about to happen, all hell broke loose again. Everyone tried to make it to safety. Jared was killing snakes with a bag, or hurled them away with it, but they were advancing, while behind him people stumbled over each other once again, screams mixing together to a new uproar.

“Kill them” “I wanna get out.” “Let me get you up.” “God help us…” It cut into Jared’s heart, but he knew he had to stay calm. Where the hell are you, Jen? Where are you? What shall I do? He no longer had any time to think. 

“Get upstairs. Come on.” Jared called. He could see Allison helping Sera. They were the first to reach the stairs. “Get up…come on. Go.” People were running up on him now. “Go. Go. Go….come on. Get out of there.” In between, he was defending the stairs against the snakes. The angle of the plane was dangerously steep now. “Hurry!” The service trolleys from the back were racing down the aisles, running over people and Jared was horrified at the number of snakes in the back area, and they all were coming in now. Again, fell people victim to the reptiles. Screaming and gurgling noises were everywhere around. 

The passengers were getting desperate. Jared tried to tune the panic down a little, but no one paid attention to him. Everyone just wanted up the stairs.

It was then that Tom Welling appeared next him. “We need to be careful. I don’t think the stairs can take much more.” There were lots of people on the stairs, although Jared and Kristin were trying to control the crowd.

“Help me…” Jared fought his way in front of the stairs, trying to make the passageway smaller. Tom did the same on Kristin’s side. The result of the action was immediate. The people trying to get upstairs were getting more aggressive. 

“Out of the way!” A young man tried to shove Jared aside. Jared barely withstood the attack, until the guy made through the passage between him and Tom. 

“Move your ass out of the way. God damn it!” Another one barked. 

Jared just shoved him through. “Come on…Go. Go! Hurry.” It was horrible. Jared saw a young woman with a snake at her throat, a man got spat at in the face, and tumbled into another group of the reptiles. “Come on. Faster! Move it.” He didn’t want to look, and concentrated on the passengers making it up the stairs. 

When Katie Cassidy showed up, together with the two boys travelling alone, he sent Tom up with them. “Help them…she can’t do it on her own.” Tom gripped Samuel and Dean, and prevented two guys from shoving Katie out of the way. Again, it left too many people on the stairs. Jared started praying they’d hold up under the weight. 

It was the flickering of the overhead light that forced him to look up. What he saw almost paralysed him. Up there, behind the glass of the big light, was enormous snake. Jared guessed it an Anaconda or Boa constrictor. A wave of panic washed over him. He couldn’t believe how mad someone had to be to do such a thing to a plane full of innocent people. 

“Oh shit! HURRY…DAMN HELL…HURRY UP…” he yelled, pulling people to the stairs and shoving them up. When he heard the glass crack, all Jared could do was put his arms over his head, in the hope the breaking glass wouldn’t hit him. 

The snake came down with loud crashing sound, and the tinkling sound of glass splinters. The air seemed to freeze. Everyone watched in fear and shock while the gigantic animal, a boa as Jared now recognized, disappeared into one of the aisles. 

The moment it had moved away, the panic flared even more. Everyone wanted to head upstairs at the same time, and what Jared had feared the most happened. It was just the handrails breaking, but a lot of people started tumbling down. Some of them were lucky, and didn’t get hurt, others died instantly, falling on upstanding pieces of metal, or the bigger glass shards. 

Glover and Lauren were amongst the passengers falling back down the stairs. Lauren still had her dog Bella tightly pressed to her chest. The tumult was incredible and lured the Boa back out into the open. People on the ground crawled backwards as she came down the aisle again. 

John Glover just stared, gaping like a fish for a moment. He immediately realized the danger they were in. He had to do something. He needed to save his life. Without a moment’s hesitation he pulled Bella from Lauren, and threw the poor dog down the walkway. 

“BELLA…” Lauren screamed. The little dog had no chance. Her yipping stopped in a split second. “You monster…I hate you.” Lauren advanced on Glover now, and started hitting him. “You monster…” She was hysterical, but didn’t stop hitting the man. 

“That was a freaking dog, Lady” he defended his actions, but no one understand them.

“Why did you do that?” Jared was there and held Lauren back, helped her to her feet. 

“What? You would’ve all done exactly the same thing.” Glover reasoned. He was cut off suddenly. The Boa was back, and this time, he was in her choking embrace. 

“Somebody do something,” Kristin shrieked, finally losing her calm. Jared pulled her and Lauren away. There was nothing that could be done for John Glover. The sound of him gasping for air grated on Jared’s hearing, but he ignored it. He had to.

“Up now…move.” There weren’t many people left down there. Jared helped the girls over the unsafe stairs. Upstairs, Allison and Tom were waiting and helping the people. 

“Come on. Move, move, move! Come on.” Tom rushed Jared. A look over his shoulder showed him the snakes were advancing on the stairs now.

“We gotta block the stairs. Grab bags. Everyone” he barked out, breathing heavy. Tom and Allison instantly started doing what he said, others helping. “Come on! Pass it down!” Jared and Tom started to built a new wall, hoping it would save them this time. 

It was Allison who had the best idea. “Wait a second. What about the life raft?” She exclaimed. Making her way to a big closet on the outer wall of the plane, she ripped something out. “Use this.”

 

“That’s great Alli. Good idea. Everybody help.” Jared felt a spark of hope, they might be able to prevent the snakes from reaching first class. They spread the raft over the circular opening of the staircase. “Everybody hold on. Here, grab an end.”

“I got it!” They had built a circle around the handrail of the stairs. The raft fit perfectly. 

“Hold it…yeah. Come on, hurry.” They had it fixed it as tightly possible and Kristin pulled the cord to inflate it. The raft slowly filled every remaining gap as it filled up with air. 

Jared had to give it to Allison, the idea was brilliant. “Yeah…push it down a little…and hold it in place. That’s great…Okay. Get it a little further down. There you go.”

“Seems to work.” Tom was opposite Jared and was searching for openings. “Looks like it’s completely sealed. That’s good.” The raft was fully inflated now. It didn’t move an inch in the tight confines of the staircase opening. 

Jared tumbled back against a wall, breathing deeply. That had been close. He rubbed his hands over his face, before he went over to look for Morgan. 

The older agent’s face was strangely expressionless when he looked up at him. “That was good work, boy.” 

Jared couldn’t have been more surprised.

 

In the cockpit, Jensen and Mike fought an entirely different war. The damn plane just wouldn’t stop its descent, no matter how hard they pulled up on the control vane. Outside the front windows, the surface of the Pacific was already in sight, despite the darkness, moonlight reflecting from the waves.

At LAX, Jim Beaver was really worried by now. Observing the monitor, where he could see SPA still descending rapidly, he repeated his warnings once again, hoping for an answer, but there was none.

“Get me NTSB,” he ordered one of his co-workers. “And call the Coast Guard.” Staring at the screen, he tried again, “Hula 1-2-1. Heavy. You are now below 1,000 feet. PULL UP. Pull up!” No answer.

Mike and Jensen were desperate. They couldn’t hear anything. All that was on their mind was getting the damn plane up in the air. Jensen pressed his eyes shut when he realized he could see the surface of the water, and Mike’s litany of ‘no, no, no’ became louder and louder. Jensen followed his lead with a roar. 

“NOOOOOOOOOOO…”

And then the descent stopped, the plane finally reacting to the steering again. They had been close, and the turn was rocky, but they made it.

“Oh my God.” Mike’s disbelieving words sounded like a sob. 

Jensen’s exclamations were a little rougher. “Holy fuck!”

At LAX, Jim Beaver took a deep calming breath. “Oh, thank God” and then “Hello? Can anybody hear me? …Hula 1-2-1. Heavy…Somebody wanna tell me what's going on up there?”

Mike was the first to compose himself. Jensen still held onto the control vane like it was a life line. He wasn’t sure he could let go any time soon. 

“We lost our …” Mike had just started to explain, when the trapdoor to the nerve centre flew up with a loud bang, and Chad reappeared. 

“Did I miss something?” he asked, breathing heavily.

“Chad…” Mike was stunned as Chad made his way up to the cockpit, groaning and cursing. His forearm was swollen to twice its’ size already. “Damn, Chad, what happened to your arm?”

“What do you think, Rosey?…one of these fucking monsters made its’ way in here and had nothing better to do than to bite me. Looked like the one that’s chopped to pieces over there.” Mike actually blushed, and changed the topic.

“Okay,” he hurriedly vacated the pilot’s seat and helped Chad over. “Here you go. Show me your arm.” Mike took the tie from his neck and wound it around Chad’s upper arm. “I don’t think it would be a good idea to open that bite.” 

“You won’t open anything on my beautiful body, Rosey…” Chad warned him, but he winked as he did so. 

“Jeez, very funny. As if I would…” Mike countered. 

Jensen bewilderedly followed their banter. He still held tightly on the control vane, but now because he needed to. It was about time to change that. He’d had enough of flying a 747. “Uh…Chad? Could you please engage the autopilot?”

“Oh…yeah. Here you go.” Chad almost toppled over the instrument panel, but he managed to reach the switch for the autopilot and activate it. Jensen removed his hand as if it’d been burned. 

Mike looked a little doubtful at hearing Chad’s continuing groaning and moaning. “Do you think you can fly with only one hand?” he asked. The smile Chad sent him was broad and dirty. 

“Duh…Rosey. And there I thought you were one of the people who’d know just what a man can do with just ONE hand.” 

“Very. Funny.” Mike pouted.

Chad grabbed the control vane. “Okay…I’ve got this. You go get on with it. Do your business.” He verbally shooed Jensen and Mike from the cockpit. Jensen didn’t need to be ordered out twice. That had been an experience he didn’t want to repeat.

 

Outside in first class, he was a little shocked at what he saw, but Jared was at his side immediately.

“We had no other choice, Jen. The snakes were everywhere. The barriers had broken down, and with the plane going down so steeply, everything went hay wire. We…we lost people again…I…” 

“It’s okay, Jay. You did what you needed to do.” Jensen rubbed his face. Jared shoved him into the service area to interrogate him further. 

“What happened?” Jensen was still a little sluggish, so Jared got his way with him again.

“The co-pilot got bitten. He fell down into the nerve centre and was unconscious for a while. The plane didn’t have a pilot. It was a fucking nightmare.” 

“I can relate. It wasn’t any better here. But I think we’ve gotten rid of them for the moment. The life raft fit perfectly in the staircase. They shouldn’t be able to come through. I think I hate your job now for entirely new reasons.” 

Jensen couldn’t help to chuckle a little hysterically. “I can promise you, it’s not always this dramatic.” 

“It’s enough to last a lifetime, thank you very much. That much I can say already…We need to talk.” There was certain urgency in those last words. 

“Jay…not now.” 

“No…not now, but the moment this fucking plane is on the ground again, I have things I have to say to you.”

Jensen had the bad feeling that Jared was very serious about this. “Now I’m scared…” he joked. There wasn’t a lot left that could still shock him at the moment. He was close to numb, and just happy to be still alive. 

Jared just looked at him. ”You’re not the only one who can admit to his mistakes.” They just looked at each other. After three years you finally want to talk to me?…I can’t believe it. What if this had never happened? Jensen wasn’t sure what to think. He’d hoped so long for a chance, and when he’d realized it wasn’t going to happen, he’d started fighting his past and the memories, just to get rid of it, and now Jared was standing before him and admitting he’d made mistakes. 

Jensen knew he should be happy. If he’d realized one thing over the last forty-eight hours, it was the fact that it was impossible to kill some things. Feelings belonged to that category. But everything else was overshadowing their private problems, and he had to ask himself if this change of heart was for him, or if the mortal danger they were in was just making Jared so scared he was grabbing every chance he could get. 

He had to get away. He couldn’t take anymore false hopes. And the chance that Jared would forget any of this the moment he was safe wasn’t so off the wall. “We’ll see about that…” and he turned and went back out the service area, over to Jeff. 

 

Jared stayed back, confused. He knew that definitely hadn’t gone the way he’d hoped, but he had no idea what had gone wrong. He’d told Jensen the truth. The last few hours had given him a sobering insight into the things Jensen had to deal with in his job. He’d known that before, but being stuck in the middle of it was something entirely different. He never would’ve believed how different it could be to know about something, and to experience it live. 

It was no fun, and instantly Jared had to ask himself why Jensen did it. The answer had jumped up at him right away. Jensen wanted to help people, wanted to make the world a better place, even if it was just in tiny deeds. Jared personally thought he overdid it, but who was he to judge that? 

He’d known from the moment he’d met Jensen Ackles that the man was made of passion. It was in everything he did; talking, learning, singing, or making love. It had drawn Jared in from the beginning, and if he was honest, it had been stupid to expect it wouldn’t be the same with his job. Mistrusting clearly belonged in that category too. 

Jared sighed and wished this was over, just so he could prove his intentions were true. The past had crashed over him full force now, and there was just one naked truth left; he hadn’t been able to stop loving Jensen Ackles in the last three years, and he wasn’t sure anymore he ever could.


	7. Chapter 7

“How you’re doing?” Jensen knelt next to the seat Jeff was resting in. His partner didn’t look too good. 

“Do you really need to ask me that?” Jeff grumbled. Jensen laid his hand on his forehead. Jeff’s skin was cold and clammy. “I don’t know if I’ll make it, Jens. We don’t even know what bit me.” Jeff mumbled almost inaudibly. His eyes had fallen shut. 

“Mike…could you bring me some water?” Jensen turned to the flight attendant expectantly. 

Mike was with him an instant later. “How does it look?” Jensen just shook his head warningly. “Here’s the water. We handing it out in en masse now. It’s damn hot in here.” 

“You got enough?”

“More than enough, believe me.” 

“Make the people bitten drink, okay? It’s important.” 

“Allison’s on their case. The boy isn’t doing so well.” Jensen looked over to Dean. He was with his brother, Katie Cassidy, and Tom Welling. Sammy was drawing furiously, while the adults watched him. Dean seemed to be napping. He looked feverish and was breathing heavily. 

“We need to make it to LA as fast as possible,” was all he could mumble, before he nodded a thanks in Mike’s direction and made Jeff drink. 

“I don’t need a nanny,” Jeff grumbled. Jensen just grinned. Jeff loved to be spoilt rotten when he was sick. “Jens…I wanted to tell you…just in case I don’t make it…I…It’s…”

“Stop it, Jeff, okay! You’ll make it. Understand?” A thin smile showed up on Jeff’s face.

“I’ll never understand how someone could let a guy like you go…never. You…running off…yeah…but leaving you behind?…Just no go…”

“Just rest, okay Jeff, …you’re delirious.” Jensen stood up and looked around. It would be a good idea to call Ferris. Jeff’s emotional excursion had made him as uncomfortable as Jared’s admission. 

 

Jeff’s eyes followed him as he made his way over to the phone. “I wish I was Jens, I wish I was.” The pain in his leg was mind numbing, and he felt a steadily increasing burn where the snake had bitten him. He knew, he just needed to look to see how bad it was, but he avoided doing so. As long as he didn’t see, he could hold onto hope the way Jensen was.

When Padalecki showed up a moment later at the seat next to his, he closed his eyes so as not to see him. He was sure the guy had done what everything possible to help him, but that didn’t change the fact their hostility was mutual.

Jeff had watched him, and realized very quickly that Padalecki was stumbling gracelessly from one realization to the next about the things Jensen had to handle in his job. He didn’t want to think about what that meant. Jealousy is a bitch, Jeff…yeah…well, you had your chance, old man, and you messed it up. It was depressing. I wish I could sleep, and not wake up until I’m alright again… The wish was fulfilled sooner than he’d expected. Jeff slowly fell into unconsciousness. 

 

When he had a little break Mike, seeing that the situation had calmed, went over to Sera, who was sat on the ground. Allison was next to her. The flight attendant in charge was talking quietly, tiredly.

“You know…last month they offered me a job on the ground…but no, this broad needed one more tour of duty.” 

“You were here for a reason.” Katie Cassidy had overheard what Sera was saying. “You saved my baby,” she declared with conviction. 

Sera managed to smile at her. “You’re right. That is a pretty good reason.”

“You have no idea how thankful I am.” Mike looked away when a tear rolled down Sera’s cheek. He just hoped she’d make it to LA. 

 

Jared had finally decided to give their personal problems a break until after touch down, and so he was once again on the search for Jensen, because he didn’t think Morgan losing consciousness was a good thing. And then there was the strange smell in the air. He got the feeling the air was getting worse and worse, and it was unbearably hot. 

“Mike, have you seen Agent Ackles?”

“Oh…I thought it was Jen…”

Jared looked at him disbelieving. “You can joke during the worst nightmare, can’t you?”

“It’s that, or breaking down. He’s on the phone…trying to get hold of his buddies down safely on the ground. Come on…” Mike led the way.

“Jensen…” Jensen hung up the phone, clearly frustrated, and the look he gave Jared wasn’t too happy either.

“What is it?”

“Uh…first…Morgan’s lost consciousness.” Jared didn’t like the fear showing up in Jensen’s eyes. “But I think that was to be expected. It’s been a while now, and I don’t think I was able to remove a lot of the venom…There’s something else. It’s too hot in here, and the air’s getting bad.”

“Jay…we’re from Texas, we should be able to stand it…”

“No…you don’t understand. It seems the air isn’t recycling…as if the AC’s given out.” 

That got Jensen’s attention. “You mean…?”

“He’s right…” Mike interrupted, suddenly very aware of their surroundings. “Goddamn…if the AC’s off, we’re done for. It’s gonna get hard to breathe soon.” 

“Well…shit.” Jensen turned on his heel and hastened in the direction of the cockpit, Jared and Mike on his heels. They were shut out, as Jensen closed the door of the cockpit into their faces. 

“Well, isn’t he a darling…?” Mike mocked.

“Just shut up. I really wouldn’t want to be him right now.” Jared defended Jensen’s behaviour. No matter what problems he had with Jensen’s behaviour himself, he wouldn’t allow anyone to mouth off about him. 

“No…you just want to be with him right now…” The flight attendant looked smug. Jared glared at him, because he didn’t have an answer to that one. 

 

Jensen fell into the seat next to Chad’s once he was inside. “What’s wrong with the AC?”

Chad just huffed. “You think that’s the only problem we have? Well, it’d be sunshine and roses if that was all that was wrong. We also have abnormal vibrations in engines one and two…and I had no choice but to throttle back” he explained. 

Jensen was horrified. “You slowed down? That…we…”

“Well, you know…it’s that or option B”

“Which is?”

“I go faster and the engines seize up, and we eventually plummet to a horrible death. They’ll spend the next year identifying bodies.” That was the last option Jensen wanted. He just prayed the people bitten could hold on a little longer. 

“Okay, so just tell me how to get the AC back on.” Better to concentrate on the things he could handle. 

Chad started to explain. “We’ve lost power to the outflow valve motor.” 

Jensen had no idea what he was talking about, but he had to at least try. “Where can I find it?”

“Well…you need to manually reset it. The breaker is down in the cargo hold.” Chad didn’t look at him when he said that. 

Jensen needed a moment to process the information. Then shock hit home. “Wait you mean…”

“I mean you need to get down into the cargo area, and reset the breaker for the AC down there.” Chad still stared straight ahead. What the agent had to do now wasn’t in the least bit funny, and he didn’t envy him in the slightest. “Really sucks to be you right now, but we’ll all die otherwise. We have no chance without fresh air to breathe.” Jensen stared off into space, gulping heavily at the thought of having to go down to where the snakes had come from.

~*~

Meanwhile, the team in LA had come across a new problem. Dr. Lindberg just looked at the pictures he’d gotten from the plane, and his expression was becoming more worried by the minute.

“These aren’t North American snakes.” Chris, driving the van they were still in, didn’t understand the problem, and judging from the expression on   
SAC Ferris’ face, she was there with him.

“So what?” he asked “What does it matter? Let’s just get the anti venom and take it to the airport.”

Lindberg shook his head. “No, no, no…these snakes aren’t even from this continent. They’re from all over the globe. Don’t you see? Only a handful of US hospitals even carry foreign anti venom.” Horror dawned on both agent’s faces.

“How long?” Ferris asked.

“How long what?” Lindberg looked at her, not really comprehending. 

“How long to get the anti venom here?” she specified. 

The Doctor’s shoulders sagged. “I don’t know. At least a day, maybe two…in any case it’ll be too late. I don’t think there’s anything we can do.”

“That’s damn well not an option.” Samantha Ferris growled. She wouldn’t accept what the Doc had said. “We will save these people, no matter what. How about the zoos? I mean…zoos have snakes…foreign snakes. Right? So they must have anti venom there.” 

Dr. Lindberg stared at his laptop screen again. “We’d need a detailed list of every species involved, with the exact number, and an exotic shipment like this could only come through a dealer. So…”

“All right. Well. Who in Hawaii could do that?” Chris asked now. 

“No one in Hawaii,” The Doc stated. “Because the snakes aren’t indigenous to Hawaii.”

“But Frederic Lehne lives in LA…” Chris went on, “Could he have shopped locally?” he felt SAC look at him approvingly. 

His question finally lit up Dr. Lindberg’s worried face. “Yes, he damn well could’ve…Only one person could arrange this many illegal snakes. She lives out in the desert. Wouldn’t be the first time she’d gotten into trouble for dealing with illegal snakes.” 

Samantha Ferris gripped the RT unit and ordered, “Take us to the heliport Chris.”

~*~

When Jensen got back to the first class area the situation was building up once more. People there were on edge. The air was getting thin, and Justin Hartley was in the middle of freaking out. 

“What the hell is going on up here? What’s going on with this heat? I’ve fucking had enough, I want out of here.” He gripped one of the oxygen masks and breathed deeply. “What the hell is wrong with these things? Why is there no air coming out?” 

Kristin advanced on him, hands held up, trying to calm him. “Sir, please calm down. The oxygen flow stops about ten minutes after the masks deploy. Please just calm down and take a seat again.”

“I don’t want to calm down. I want out of here.” 

“Justin, just do what the woman tells you.” Tom had stood up and was backing Kristin up. 

Justin shoved Tom. “Get away from me. You all get away from me.” Allison, who had made another try at calming the man, was shoved hard too. Jared caught her and got her out of the way.

“Now dude, you should probably do what your boss is telling you.” He’d caught on to most people’s relationships by now, as he’d had nothing better to do than to observe.” 

Justin got in his face. “And you need to shut up in the first place. You’re the reason we’re in this mess.” He grabbed Jared’s t-shirt and shoved him. It took Tom and Jensen seizing him from behind to keep him still. 

“Now dude, calm down.” Jensen ordered, putting himself between Justin and Jared. 

“And you too, asshole …you brought this on us.” Justin freed himself from Tom and jumped at Jensen now, getting a grip on the gun in his waistband. Everyone retreated when he aimed it at Jensen. “Back off everyone…just back off.”

“That gun goes off in this pressurized cabin and we all die.” Mike stated serious. 

“Well, you know what? I want some air.” Justin responded nonsensically, and advanced on Mike now. That did it for Tom. 

“HEY…what’s the matter with you Justin?”

“What’s the matter with you? We deserve better than this.” 

Tom had Justin’s attention. “NO…what’s the matter with you? We go back a long way, Justin, but this? I don’t even recognize you anymore, waving a gun at all these innocent women and children. There’s a baby right over there. We’re all in trouble here, man. This isn’t just about you.” Jensen took the chance, and managed to get his gun back, aiming it at Justin now. That cooled Justin down fast.

“Just sit back down Justin, and damn stay well out of the way.” Tom Welling’s tone was much more forceful now. Justin seemed to shrink back in his seat and Tom relaxed. 

“Wow.” The comment was very quiet, but Tom heard it clearly. Mike winked at him approvingly. 

A moment later the lights went out. 

Jensen couldn’t help it. “GOD damn.” He heard the whispering, and felt the fear of the passengers. He felt Jared’s hand on his arm. Someone brought out flashlights. 

Mike handed him one, whispering, “Listen man, we’ve got a secured supply of oxygen. Kristin is about to give some to the kids, and I think Jared here should give it to your partner when she’s done. I’ll bring it.”

“So the AC really is off?” Jared gripped Jensen’s shoulders the moment Mike was gone. Jensen felt uncomfortable. He knew Jared wouldn’t like what he was about to do. 

“Looks like it.” he answered.

“And what can we do about it? I don’t think we’ll make it to LA, not like this.” 

“The only thing you’ll do is look out for Jeff, okay? The rest is none of your business.” 

“Jensen…” Too late, Jensen had disappeared into the darkness.

 

Jensen went to find Mike. He had a feeling he was the flight attendant with most level head, and he’d need help when he went down into the cargo section. Mike was bustling about in the darkness, reassuring passengers, handing out water, and waiting for Kristin to be done with the kids. 

Jensen gripped his shoulder when he found him. “Can I talk to you for a moment in private…about the AC?” 

Mike looked at him for a moment, and then nodded. “What did Chad have to say?”

“Nothing I liked much, and this has to stay between the two of us, but I need your help…Do you know anything about an outflow valve motor in the cargo area …and its’ breaker?”

Mike frowned. “It’s down there in the back, but…hey…Wait a minute. What’re you planning to do?”

“I need to go down there to reset it…and I need your help to find it. Do you by any chance have something like a walkie-talkie around here? So you can guide me from up here?”

“You can’t go down there on your own…It’s very likely that the snakes came from there” Mike stated.

“I know…but we need air.” Jensen looked everywhere but at Mike. He wasn’t happy about what he needed to do, but as he’d said, they needed fresh air, Justin Hartley’s freak out had proven that. That meant the breaker needed to be reset, therefore someone had to go down. The one in charge was Jensen, so he had to do it.

“That’s insane…you’d never…”

They were interrupted by Kristin. “Mike, here’s the oxygen for the agent. Tell Mr. Padalecki to bring it back to Mr. Welling and the boys. The baby isn’t doing so well either.” She handed Mike the small oxygen tank before she disappeared back in the darkness. 

Mike had lost his speech for a moment, but he hadn’t forgotten what needed to be said. “Agent Ackles…whatever you have in mind, you’re not going down there alone.”

“Mike…I understand…” Jensen didn’t get any further. Allison’s desperate voice cut him short. “Sera, oh my God, Sera.” Her sobbing immediately caught the attention of the whole room. 

Mike turned on his heel and hastened over to her, leaving Jensen behind. On his way he quickly handed the oxygen to Jared. “Bring it over to the kids again once he’s had some fresh air.” He mumbled distractedly before he went on, falling to his knees next to Sera. “No…no, no, no…Sera, please.” Kristin was on his side now too. Allison cried quietly, while the other two just stared helplessly. Sera had stopped breathing. Mike had to fight the tears, gently touching her face, “No…please…” but there was no doubt. Sera was gone. Kristin took off her jacket, and gently placed it over her, tears shimmering in her eyes.

Mike couldn’t bear it anymore. “Damn it to fucking hell…” He was back on to his feet and out of the passenger area in an instant. He needed to compose himself. This wasn’t the way he’d imagined his last flight for SPA. He’d expected a good time with his long time friends, and now everything had gone to hell.

“Goddamn, goddamn, goddamn…” He cursed, and was tempted to kick one of the kitchen cupboards, pressing the heel of his hand against his forehead, desperately wishing it was already over. At that moment, he had no hope left.

“You all right?” It was Jared, ripping him out of his misery. 

Mike looked everywhere but at him. “I will be in a moment...” 

“I’m sorry…” Jared stared at his feet. 

Mike sneered at him. He couldn’t help it. “What about? That a mad mob boss wants to stop you testifying? That’s hardly your fault. You’re doing the right thing here, Jay!”

“Doesn’t feel that way…but whatever.” Jared clearly had something more important on his mind “What does Jensen want to do about the AC? He won’t tell me.” Mike’s brows shot up to his non-existent hair line. He could well imagine the reason for that, he wasn’t sure if he should follow the agent’s lead, or tell the boy the truth. 

His romantic heart won in face of Jared’s worry, that and the fact he had a very clear inkling about agent Ackles’ chances alone down in the cargo section. “He’s about to go down to the cargo area to reset a breaker…so that the AC will come on again.” Jared immediately turned on his heel, and Mike was very sure Jensen Ackles was in for another hard ride. He couldn’t find it in him to be sorry. 

Jared deserved a chance to say whatever he wanted to, and afterwards Ackles would probably agree with him, and take him down to the cargo section too. 

 

Jensen checked the small elevator that would take him down to the cargo section. He’d just killed two snakes in there with one of the sticks the flight attendants had made with the broken champagne bottles, when Jared appeared behind him and shoved him in there, closing the door behind them

“You can’t do this! Not alone, Jen, that’s impossible. I know you think you have it under control, but you’ve had an iron grip on yourself since you realized there were snakes on this plane, and any tiny thing could make you lose it. You’re stressed to the point of crashing. You CAN’T do this. Not alone.” Jared’s fist clutched Jensen’s shirt. His face was desperate and his voice urgent. 

Jensen wanted to shove him away and out of the elevator, but he recognized the panic in his behaviour, and that’s why he wasn’t able to. Hesitatingly, he put his hand over Jared’s fist. 

“What did I tell you about my job?”

“Goddamn, Jen, I know everything about your job. You made sure of that. I know about duty and dedication. But you can’t do everything alone. It’s not Morgan’s fault he got bitten, but you need to accept help. I won’t let you go down there on your own. I don’t want to lose the chance to straighten things out between us. Let me come with you.”

“Fuck, Jared…” Jensen’s hand slipped onto the back of Jared’s neck, and he pulled his head down onto his shoulder, holding him tight. “You know I can’t do that. You’re the only witness. You’re MY charge at the moment. I realize some things have changed in the last forty-eight hours. I still don’t know the reasons behind it, and I would honestly love to straighten things out, but that, at the moment, comes a poor second.” He felt Jared tense and fully understood it, but he didn’t let go. “At the moment my first priority is getting a witness to LA alive. And I have to do what I’m can to make that happen…especially since it’s equally important to me as getting YOU to LA alive.”

At that, Jared’s arms slipped around his waist and he clung to him with force. “I’m sorry…I’m so, so sorry, Jen…I…” Jared sobbed against his shoulder. “I thought…I…you…why did you give up on me so quickly…Why, Jen?”

Tears sprang to Jensen’s eyes, and he bit his lip. All of this was so messed up and what Jared had just said only emphasized all the mistakes they’d made. 

He hadn’t been sure Jared wanted him to come for him. Their relationship had been so strained, and the only impression he’d from Jared, before he’d run away, was pissed and fed up. He’d been about to follow him to Honolulu the moment Sherrie had told him where Jared had gone. He had already dialled the number of LAX, but then he’d stopped, because something had come to his mind, something he hadn’t liked in the slightest.

Jensen had known his work schedule wasn’t going to change soon. At the time, he hadn’t been able to change anything about it, and all he’d manage was a short interlude, before Jared went back to being pissed off at him again. In that moment, he’d been sure Jared was better off without him, that he deserved to find something better. His running away had just confirmed that Jared needed something else. 

Jensen had hung up the phone and decided to let him go. It didn’t matter that he had been drunk for the next three days after his decision. 

But now he realized Jared had hoped he’d would come. He had at least to straighten that out. “Jay…I…all I could think of was…was that you deserved better than what I was able to give you. That you would do better without me…that you would be better of finding someone who didn’t stand you up two times out of three. That it would be better if…if I wasn’t with you anymore.” Jared’s head snapped up, and he stared down at him, still tears on his cheeks, and Jensen felt like a fool to think it’d ever been the case. “You were so angry, so hurt, and all we did was fight. I know you wanted something else…and I felt I held you back. I knew I disappointed you so often…and I didn’t want to see you disappointed anymore…It seemed to be the best solution for you. You could start over…Goddamn, I didn’t want to have this talk now…I have…” His words were cut off when Jared’s lips crashed onto his in an almost brutal kiss that made Jensen’s knees buckle. 

When Jared let him go, he had a problem standing. 

“Don’t you dare get yourself killed. Don’t you dare, Jen.” 

The intensity in Jared’s voice crawled over Jensen’s skin and made him shudder. “You know very well that’s not in my power.”

“That’s why you aren’t going down there alone. I know I can’t come…but I bet Mike would.”

“Jared, Mike is a civilian. I can’t endanger any civilians…” 

Suddenly, the door sprang open and Mike leant against the side, looking at them. Jensen blushed furiously, realizing he had been listening in. Jared threw the flight attendant a small glare. He was clearly the one in charge at the moment. It hadn’t happened often in the past, but every time it did happen, Jensen had been seriously turned on. 

That fact unfortunately hadn’t changed, and so Jensen’s mind was still in slow motion when Mike said, “Oh yes you can. I’m responsible for the people on this plane. They’re in my charge. It’s my duty to make sure they’re safe. So you know what, agent? I’ll come with you. With…or without your permission. Get out of here witness…and make sure the situation stays under control. I don’t like that Mr. Hartley. If you need help, Mr. Welling won’t hesitate to do so” Mike pressed a walkie-talkie in Jared’s hand before he pulled him from the elevator, but Jared held on to his arm.

“Listen Mike, he’s got a phobia about snakes, if he starts hyperventilating use this.” He pressed one of the paper bags in Mike’s hand. 

Mike raised his brows at Jensen. “Wow, I’m impressed then!” he exclaimed.

Jensen just stared at him. He was so stunned, he didn’t utter a word before the elevator started its’ descent down into the cargo section. He only regained his senses as the elevator came to a halt.

“Mike, I don’t want you to come with me!” he stated. Mike gave him a look.

“You have no say in this. This plane is as much my responsibility as it is yours. I’m the flight attendant in charge now. A good friend of mine died because of these damn snakes. I’ve got issues here…and…here’s the most important point…together our chances are way better, Four eyes see a lot more than two do. And…just to be clear…I won’t back out. You’d have to knock me out and leave me to the snakes.” 

Jensen’s left brow rose disbelievingly, but he knew when he’d lost an argument, so he just opened the door. “Okay…then let’s do this. The faster we’re done, the faster we’re safe again.” At this, Mike beamed. 

“Good choice, agent. I knew you had a clever head there.” 

 

The cargo area seemed quiet, except for the constant drone of the engines. At first glance, there were no snakes to be seen. 

“Jensen?” came through the walkie-talkie, and Mike answered,

“Safe and peachy till now. Don’t worry lover boy.” 

Jensen blushed once again. “Could you just stop that?”

Mike looked at him with glee. “Dude, the tension between the two of you is so obvious…it’s just fun to rile you up. Don’t begrudge me the little fun I’ve had on this flight.” Mike opened a locked door, an entry into a service tunnel. It smelled of smoke in there, and numerous short circuits still sprayed sparks through the darkness. The snakes really had done a number on the plane. “Damn peachy…” Mike growled. He was about to go in, but Jensen stopped him.

“I’ll go first. You back me up.” For once he got his way. Mike stepped aside, getting something from the pocket of his jacket. “What the hell is that?” Jensen asked him. Mike showed him proudly an aerosol can with a lighter taped on.

“I went through a pyromaniac phase in my youth.” Mike demonstrated his weapon, and Jensen reared back a little.

“Anything else I should know about you?”

“Not really, except that I really want to live through this to get a chance to go on a date with the hot Mr. Welling.” Jensen shook his head.

“You’re unbelievable.”

“That you can bet on…Okay…let’s get going.”

Jensen made his way through the tunnel into the next compartment, dodging sparks and ripped off cable. He was just thankful there were no snakes at the moment. Strung as highly as he was, he couldn’t be sure he could take one at the moment. In the next compartment, a door was open that was supposed to be closed. 

“Looks like someone rigged this up, so the snakes could get out.” Mike just nodded grimly in answer. “All right, so where is this outflow breaker panel?” 

“It’s in the very next compartment.” They made it through another door, and Jensen instantly knew what he was looking for. 

“You know how to handle this?” he asked Mike, looking around attentively for snakes.

“Yeah.” Mike went over and tried to bring the breaker back on. “Shit.” The lever didn’t move.

“What?” 

“It seems to be stuck. The goddamn lever won’t move.” Mike tried again, but then a snake suddenly struck from somewhere above at him. It was sheer luck Jensen got it with his stick. He threw it to the ground and beheaded it with the bottle shards, but it wasn’t the only snake around. Mike grilled the other one with his make shift flamethrower. “Fucking monsters, you won’t get me,” he hissed.

“Hey…you alright down there?” Jared’s voice came over the walkie-talkie. 

“Yeah, we are…we are. We just need to move that damn lever” Mike answered. Jensen started looking through the luggage scattered around. Finding a harpoon type object made of steel, he went back over to Mike, who was still trying to move the lever.

“Let me.” One hard hit with the handle, and the lever flew up, snapping back into it’s place. 

“Thank God, now let’s get out of here.” Mike turned to make his way back, Jensen on his heels. 

But it didn’t go as well as on the way down. Now, the snakes were back with a vengeance. Burning and hitting snakes, they made their way back to the elevator, happy when they found it empty, and were able to get out of the cargo section.


	8. Chapter 8

Upstairs, the lights went back on, and a sigh of relief went through the passengers. Lauren looked around in awe. “Shhh…do you guys hear that?” she said in wonderment. A rush of fresh air was coming in and made the air much lighter. “Thank God.”

Kristin and Allison continued handing out water bottles. 

“Hey, how’s the boy?” Allison asked Tom Welling, who was once again sitting with Sam and Dean.

“He’s still in a lot of pain.” Tom answered, stroking Dean’s sweaty head. 

“Make sure he drinks enough.” Allison said, handing him water bottles. Tom nodded, opened a bottle, and held it to Dean’s dry lips under the Sam’s watchful eyes. 

She was making her way through the area when Justin Hartley showed up next to her.

“Hey, uhm, you got some water for me?” he asked unabashedly. 

Allison became the absolute professional. “Sure yeah,” she replied, and handed some bottles over. 

“Thanks…uhm…Look, I’m not really good at this whole apologizing thing, but I’m sorry about pushing you.”

“It’s all right.” 

“You too, man.” Hartley looked up at Jared, who’d appeared behind Allison the moment Hartley had approached her. “That’s…that’s my bad…” The man continued to stumble over his words. Jared kept his cool. 

“It’s okay.” Nodding, Hartley did his best not to run back to his seat. 

Allison just winked at Jared. “Thanks.”

~*~

The two helicopters made their way into the deserted plains of eastern LA. Dr. Lindberg was with SAC Ferris, Chris, and the pilot in the first one. 

“Nicki Aycox has been busted twice by uniform…for possession that is.” Lindberg had just explained. “She’s the only one in the area that could put together a shipment like this.” They could already see the farm from far. When they got closer, they could see a woman running from the house to the barn. Two other guys were taking off in the grassland. “There she is. That’s her.” Lindberg called out. 

“Bring the ‘copter down.” Samantha Ferris ordered. “Come on, down. We haven’t got much time anymore.” The pilot did as he was told. Chris was already opening the door. He was in the back with Lindberg, and the Doc was getting worried because they still were fairly high up in the air.

“What’re you doing?”

“My job,” was all Chris said, before he jumped out and made his way over to the barn, Ferris on his heels.

“I’ve got your back”

“’kay, boss.” Reaching the entryway of the barn the first shot sounded. Chris jumped aside and fell to the ground. Cursing, he got back to his feet and ran in after the woman. Again, Nicky Aycox shot at him and missed, retreating farther in. It was hot and humid in there.

Chris made his way along the wall, taking a look around the corner. There where glass containers all over the place, and inside them were lots of snakes. Poor Jen… went through Chris’ head. He knew about Jensen’s phobia, even though no one else did. They’d exchanged their most dangerous secrets during a heavy Tequila session. Chris had admitted that he was afraid of SAC Ferris.

He knew all too well Jensen would get a seizure, what with the snakes in the containers, and now he was stuck on a plane full of the reptiles. He didn’t even want to think about his state of mind.

He aimed a shot blindly into the room. It was countered with another one from Aycox. Damn bitch…I’ll show you. Chris ducked in behind a stack of containers and fired again. The woman in the room tried to get at him, even though she must’ve known she was done for. She launched herself into the walkway between the stacks of snake containers and fired at Chris. 

Chris’ next bullet got her in the shoulder, and she stumbled backwards from the impact, hitting and breaking one of the containers, before falling on a table. Chris advanced, even though a snake was writhing on the ground now after Aycox had broken it free from its’ container.

“Area secure. Send in Dr. Lindberg.” He’d just announced his success in his comgear when the snake struck at the woman’s leg. “Wow…that’s gonna leave a mark.” Aycox cursed filthily. 

“Hey, Doc, what kind is this one?” The snake was still writhing on the ground when the Doc came in. Chris shot it to remove any danger. He could see the good Doctor jump at the shot, and he stuttered a little with his answer. 

“ That’s…That’s a desert black snake. It’s indigenous to the Middle East.” 

“Looks like you can use some anti-venom.” Chris taunted the woman.

“In the fridge,” Came her instant answer, panic in her eyes. ”Hurry.”

“Oh…hurry.” While Dr. Lindberg went for the fridge, Chris put his gun away and got close to Nicky Aycox.

“The Middle East...” SAC Ferris now repeated the Doc’s information. “Correct me if I’m wrong, Dr. Lindberg, but that would make this snake illegal, wouldn’t it?” She exchanged a look with Chris, who understood her quite clearly.

Lindberg was unaware, drawing the anti venom into a syringe. “Yes, yes, it would.”

Chris then asked, “How long would that bite give Ms. Aycox?” 

Now Lindberg caught on, looking at the agent. “I would say about seven minutes.” That brought an evil grin to Chris’ face, while Ferris observed the ground, seemingly completely disinterested. 

“Seven minutes, huh?”...All right. Listen to me…I would love to do this whole dance, you know…take a nuanced approach to interrogating you, but the truth is…I don’t have the time to be subtle. I have to save a plane full of innocent people…I want a list of every snake on that plane…right now.” 

“Fuck you,” Aycox spit in his face. Chris let her go. 

“Doc, put the anti venom back into the fridge.” Chris heard Ferris leave and shoved his headset off. The Doc looked shocked. 

“You can’t DO that…” Aycox now screamed at him. Chris didn’t look at her. 

“We were never here…were we, Doc?” Lindberg just seized the container with the anti-venom, going along with the agent. 

“I know nothing.” 

“Hey…HEY…come back. You can’t me let die here.”

“Why? You endangered more than hundred people’s lives on a freaking plane. We don’t even know how many you’ve killed…” Chris growled. Nicky Aycox just stared at him for a moment, and seemingly realized he was serious.

“It’s on the clipboard…” She bellowed. 

The Doc was over there instantly, and Chris was back in her face. “Is that every snake on that plane?”

“Yes,” she hissed. Her breathing became laboured, and Dr. Lindberg wanted to give her the injection, but Chris snatched the syringe away from him. 

“Did Frederic Lehne pay you to do this?” He carried on to another really important point.

Aycox was down for the count and gave in instantly. “Yes. Now give me the damn shot.” Chris still didn’t give into her demands, and Lindberg was getting nervous again. She looked at Chris hatefully, but he just mocked her,

“What are you gonna do? Call the ACLU?...How did you make them so aggressive on board the plane?” he further asked. “That’s what I’m really wondering.” It was the last piece to the puzzle of putting Freddy Lehne down.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aycox tried to dodge the question once again.

Chris let some of the anti-venom drip to the ground, and Dr. Lindberg went pale.

“Hey…you’re wasting it!” Aycox screamed. She was clearly getting panicked now. 

“Answer. The. Question.”

“Pheromones. We sprayed pheromones on the flowers so they’d circulate in the plane’s air system. I swear to God, that’s it.” Nicky Aycox gasped, now visibly desperate. Chris believed her, because her time was running out. 

“Okay…All right. Give her the shot, Doc.” Dr. Lindberg did hastily as he was told, while Chris became all business like again, his FBI head back on. 

“Boss, let’s bring in Frederic Lehne. We can charge him with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder….yeah…It’s safe now…you can tell his attorney to ask Freddy what his preference is, gas or lethal injection. We’ve got him.” He could here Samantha Ferris laugh over his headset.

~*~

 

 

SPA flight 121 was bathed in golden sunlight as it finally neared LAX, and Jensen and Mike came back from the cargo section. Jared was awaiting them impatiently. He knew they were alright, but he wanted Jensen back up there with him, where he was safe. 

The moment he exited the elevator, Jared pulled him into his arms. “Thank God, you made it.” 

Jensen’s answer was muffled against his chest, but Mike was never one to shut up. “And what about me? I saved his ass,” he groused. He definitely hadn’t expected to be pulled into the hug too, but Jared had freakishly long arms, and so he had no chance of escaping. “Yeah, yeah…okay…let me go.”

“Thank you,” Jared mumbled against his bald head, and Mike blushed furiously. 

“Yeah…and now let me go. I can’t give the wrong impression if I’m going to stand a chance of getting what I want.” He pushed away, throwing a glance around. Jared raised his eye brows at him and looked questioningly at Jensen, who mouthed ‘tall, dark, handsome and very, very supportive’. The grin that spread over Jared’s face visibly worried Mike. “What?”

“Don’t worry…your chances are definitely good.” For a moment Mike just gaped like a fish, then he turned huffily to the passenger area, not deeming Jared’s words with an answer. Jensen and Jared followed him, grinning. 

They were welcomed with cat-calls and cheering. Kristin and Allison hugged Mike tightly, and Allison even embraced Jensen. “Thanks so much, boys, thanks so much,” she enthused. 

Mike found his power of speech again. “Yeah…we’re heroes.” Almost everybody in the area thanked them, and while Mike bathed in the attention, Jensen just blushed furiously, and Jared smiled secretively at him. He hadn’t forgotten how Jensen felt about attention. The smile disappeared at Jensen’s next question.

“How’s Jeff?” Jensen moved away from the crowd over to the other agent, sitting down in the seat next to him. 

“Still breathing. Shallowly, and with difficulties, but still breathing. Seems he’s a stubborn bastard.” Jared stated flatly.

“You can bet on that.” Jensen checked Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s vitals, brushing his cheek gently. 

Jared’s happiness to have him back safe vanished. Why do always have to put me back in my place, Jen?…Why do you have to do that? He wasn’t even sure Jensen was aware what impression he made on Jared, but it hurt nevertheless. On the other hand, he wasn’t even sure he had the right to be hurt. It had been him doing the leaving three years ago. Cutting off his thoughts, he went over to the phone when he heard its quiet buzzing, not wanting to see anymore of the Jensen/Jeff interaction. 

“South Pacific Air 121, Padalecki on the phone…”

“Hey Jay…good to hear your voice again,” he heard a cheery answer. For a moment Jared was startled, and then he recognized the voice. 

“Chris…”

“Yeah…the one and only. Just thought all of you up there would be interested in the fact that we’ve got the anti-venom…and we’ve got Freddy. The death sentence is reserved for him. You’ll be the last nail in his coffin. Doesn’t that feel good?” Chris sounded enthusiastic, and Jared would really have liked to share the feeling, but to his absolute surprise, he just felt numb.

The silence at his end made Chris chuckle, “Experiencing the paralysing shock of a successfully solved case?” He couldn’t have been more right.

“How did you know?”

“I’ve been an agent of the honoured Federal Bureau of Investigation for years now. I know how it feels. Suddenly, all the adrenalin is gone, and you start asking yourself why you took so long to get the bad guy. It takes a while until you feel at least content that you got him in the end…Tell Jensen, okay? And how’s Morgan doing?”

“I will…and Morgan is still breathing.” Jared’s voice sounded even flatter now. Morgan was continuing to be a thorn in his flesh; if anything it was getting worse.

“Was he pulling the jealous-lover-attitude?” Chris asked, out of the blue, and with certain degree of glee in his voice, and Jared got the feeling he didn’t like Jeffrey Dean Morgan as well. It made him feel a little better; nonetheless he scowled at the phone.

“What does it matter?” It for sure was impossible to miss his sour tone.

Once more Chris chuckled, without a doubt understanding exactly what had made Jared angry. “I thought so…See you on the ground, Jay. Good luck.”

“Thanks.” Jared hung up, looking over at Jensen, who was still sat in the seat next to Morgan, visibly exhausted but surprisingly calm. Jared went over and took the seat opposite. 

“Chris just called. They got him…and they got the anti-venom.”

“Oh, thank God.” The news gave Jensen some of his energy back and he stood up. The sight of how he visibly relaxed made Jared tone down his resentment a few notches. Jensen was still in a stressful situation, and it would be better to put his issues off for a while.

“Everybody listen… we just got a call from the Bureau. They’ve got the anti-venom.” Jensen exclaimed loudly, “It’s gonna be waiting for us when we land in LA…” he looked down at Sam Winchester who was sat on the ground near the phone, next to his brother and Tom Welling.

“You hear that, little man? Your brother will be alright.” Sam smiled wearily at him and nodded. “It’s all up to the pilot now.” Jensen stated finally. It wouldn’t be too long anymore, even with the slower pace. 

The mood went up noticeably, and Kristin spoke up almost cheerily “Then I’ll give him the good news.” She brushed past Jensen, heading in direction of the cockpit door, where she pushed in the code to open the door. Nothing happened. “Chad?…Chad!?” There was no answer. Jensen turned, worried, and felt Jared and Mike close in on him. “Chad…open the door.” Kristin tried again. 

“What’s going on?” Jensen was next to her, trying himself and rapping hard on the door. 

“He’s not answering.” Kristin was worried again, and not just a little.

Jensen hammered against the door once more. “Chad…come on man, answer.” He didn’t get a reaction. “Oh come on, man, please…” he took a knife from a sheath in the back pocket of his jeans and broke the lock open. The sight that greeted him left him tumbling back quickly.

The cockpit was swarming with ugly grass green snakes and Chad slumped in his pilot’s seat, unmoving. Jensen threw the door closed again.

“Damnit to fucking hell…That’s ENOUGH…THAT’S FUCKING ENOUGH NOW…” Jensen’s fist hit the door hard. Turning, he had to face the shocked stares of his companions. Kristin was pale, Jared and Mike looked at him questioningly. They hadn’t had a good look in. “It’s swarming with snakes.”

“What? WHAT about Chad?” Mike was reaching for the door. 

Jensen caught his hand. “No, Mike…we can do nothing. There are too many. He seems to be unconscious anyway.” …if he’s lucky…

“But we can’t leave him in there!” Mike looked at him with horrified eyes, his good mood changed abruptly to horror again. 

Jensen’s hand landed on his shoulder. “If he doesn’t move, they won’t attack. But that’s not our biggest problem…How the hell do we land this plane? That’s our first priority at the moment.” It was a hard statement, but right now was it the only thing that mattered, for them all.

“Yeah…and getting the snakes out of the cockpit…” Jared was a little more specific. 

Jensen’s gaze fixed on the ground at his feet. “I think I’ve got a solution for that one…” 

Mike frowned at him. “What do you wanna do?” He’d realized by now just what kind of hard head Jensen Ackles could be.

Jensen looked at him sheepishly. “I’m gonna open a window…” Mike opened his mouth, only to close it again. It was crazy, but at the same time, it was probably their only chance. They weren’t too far away from LAX anymore. Turning on his heel, he went in the passenger area to get prepared, and ordered people to strap in again, as well as looking for a possible pilot. 

 

Jared looked at Jensen with a mix of admiration and disbelief. “You’re crazy…you know that, right?” 

“We’ve come this far…I’m not gonna let these people down now…not now, when we have a good chance of surviving,” Jensen declared. 

“That’s good.” Jared stated softly, and just stared at Jensen for a moment. Then he pulled him in for the umpteenth time, not letting jealousy and doubts cloud his judgement anymore. “You can do this…I’m sure of it…and I’ll be waiting for you at the end.” Jared felt Jensen’s head sink against his shoulder. He didn’t say anything for a while, just stood there in Jared’s embrace, a little out of sight from the hell they still weren’t entirely through. 

When he straightened up and looked at Jared, his face was expressionless once more. “Strap in, okay?…See you at the other end.” Jared nodded, turned and went to his place next to Morgan. 

 

“Okay, I can’t believe I’m gone say this, but…is there anybody here who knows how to fly a 747?” It’s so useless and so hopeless, but I’ve got to try. Mike wasn’t very happy about agent Ackles’ idea to shoot open one of the windows, but in the face of their reality, it was the only way left. They had to get rid of the snakes, fast, and they needed someone to land this plane.

He wasn’t very surprised when no one answered. They would have known if another pilot was on their flight. “Anyone who has at least a little experience flying a plane, no matter what kind?” he widened the parameters. 

Again there was no answer. Mike felt agent Ackles step up next to him. 

“Mike, I’m gonna do it. I’m sure the tower can talk me through it.” Mike didn’t dare to utter his doubts in presence of the passengers, but it looked like they had no other choice. 

“Okay…let’s…”

“Tom…Tom, you’ve got to do this…I know you can…please…” Justin Hartley sounded freaked again. He was looking at his boss with desperate eyes. It was obvious he didn’t trust agent Ackles a whole lot. 

Mike looked at Tom Welling, a little surprised. The pretty man had a faint blush on his cheeks. He was sat in front of the row where the boys and Katie Cassidy were seated. 

“Justin I…I don’t think this is a good idea…” Tom just stuttered.

“Tom, please…you are the only one here who can save us…please. I don’t want to die.” Mike expected agent Ackles to be affronted, but he clearly wasn’t. It seemed he had his own doubts about his chances of landing the plane. Absolutely understandable. I’d have my doubts too, and I’m a flight attendant who’s had a crash course.

“Sir, if you have at least a little experience, I would be infinitely grateful” Mike tried to reassure Tom Welling.

“It’s Tom, please.” Tom blushed even more now. “And I’m really not sure this is a good idea.” Worry and doubt was written all over his face.

“Have you experience in flying a plane or not?” Mike asked him right out, looking at him hopefully now.

“Kind of…” he admitted, blushing furiously now. 

“See…I said it, he can do it. I know, you can, Tom.” Adoration was written all over Justin Hartley’s face now. 

Tom just glared at him as he stood up. “Someone needs to keep an eye on the boys!” he said brushing past Mike.

“I will, Tom. Promise…and thank you.” 

Tom smiled shyly at him. “You can thank me when we’re safe on the ground…”

Mike turned to Jensen again. “Listen, when the windows go out, the cabin’s gonna lose pressure and oxygen. You gotta get us down as fast as possible,” he whispered.

“Okay…” Jensen nodded and took over command again. “Everybody strapped in safely? Flight attendants too?” Acknowledging murmurs came from all around. Mike took Tom Welling’s seat, strapping one of the strong cords from the life raft around his waist and fastening it onto one of the seats. He wanted to stay close to the boys, and all the seats were occupied anyway, except the rows at the side where they wanted to shoot at the window. Two other young men had fastened themselves with ropes too, so that Kristin and Allison could have a seat.

Jensen, in the meanwhile, explained his plan further. “OKAY…I’ll open a window now by shooting it…to get rid of the snakes. It will be fierce, but everybody strapped in securely should be safe. And don’t be afraid of the snakes anymore, they won’t stand a chance against the vortex of the air streaming out. everyone ready?”

The answers were uncertain, but positive. Jensen wrapped a rope from the life raft around his waist. Tom did the same, while Mike started praying. 

They had fastened a rope on the door to the cockpit too, to open it when the air started streaming out. 

“Okay…one last time, everybody ready, securely strapped in?...Good. Remember, it’s going to be loud, and it’s going to be cold. Hold your breath as long as you can. And protect your heads. Use your arms.” Jensen turned to Tom “You’re ready?” Tom just nodded and held tight on the rope around his waist. Jensen followed his example, before taking a deep breath, exchanging a look with Jared once more. See you later, love…

“OKAY…take position.” Jensen took out his gun and aimed it at a window, while the passengers in the seats bowed down and protected themselves with their arms. “Let’s do this…One, two…three…NOW…” 

When the shots went off and put two holes in two windows, the falling air pressure instantly ripped them more open. Luggage flew out and did more damage to the plane. The noise was deafening. People screamed, and the vortex was violent. Jensen, next to Tom, ordered the other man to move.

“Open the door.” The instant it was open, the snakes in there went flying by, going out the hole in the wall. The two men forced their way into the cockpit, closing the door behind them with sheer strength. Getting rid of the rope, Jensen went over to Chad, unbuckled him, and dragged him out of the seat. He didn’t seem to have any new bites, and Jensen checked his vitals.

“He’s still alive…thank God. Looks like he lost consciousness before the snakes came in.”

Tom was in the pilot’s seat already, strapping in. “Take your seat, we don’t have much time.” Jensen positioned Chad on the ground and did what Tom said. “Hit that auto pilot switch for me, would you?” He motioned to a switch on Jensen’s side of the instrument panel. Jensen did as he was told, watching Tom moving the control vane carefully. “Before I get in too deep, I need to make a confession…” He said then.

“You gonna tell me now you can’t fly, aren’t you?” Jensen felt the ground drop out from under him. 

“That not it exactly …I’ve just never flown a real plane…”

 

In the passenger area, the vortex was still raging. When the life raft was ripped from the stair case opening, everything went flying. Snakes, luggage, plastic dishware, bottles and soda cans, papers, and even the gigantic boa constrictor, went out of the steadily growing hole in the wall of the plane. 

Mike clung desperately to the rope holding him. The current was murderous. Sam had attached himself once more to his half unconscious brother. Katie was screaming, bowed over Ruby, pressing her forcefully against her body. He could hear other passengers scream too. 

Lauren Cohen was pressed upright to the back of her seat. Justin Hartley gripped the seat in front of him, screaming like a girl, and the two guys fastened with ropes fought for hold, their legs in the air, being tugged in direction of the hole. Goddamn…it should be over by now…shouldn’t it? As if the gods had heard him, the pressure slowly decreased. Mike could move again without too much force. 

He put the oxygen mask back over Dean’s mouth and nose. “Hold it, Sammy, okay!” Sam just nodded, this time without even reacting to the nick name, he was so scared. Mike loosened his rope and got up. He needed to make sure everyone was alright.

The air was too thin, and he just hoped they’d get lower soon, just for the sake of breathing.


	9. Chapter 9

In the cockpit, Tom looked a little sheepishly at Jensen, continuing his admission. “…I was on a simulator for almost hundred hours for research, and I’m unbeatable on ‘Ariborne’…but…the real deal…no.”

“’Airborne’…that’s…”

“A PS2 game…yeah.”

Jensen gulped. “Oh my God…”

“Even considering that, I’m nevertheless the only one with at least some kind of experience…I guess we need to do this together. Do you trust me, Jensen?” 

Jensen looked at him, disbelieving. “How good are you at this game?”

“I developed it…I’m the best,” Tom stated. 

That calmed Jensen at least a little. Taking a deep breath, and admitting he had no other choice anyway, he answered, “Okay…You’re the only one I have, so I trust you…Let’s do this…”

“Good, then let’s level this bird out.” Tom started moving the control vane, and the plane swayed smoothly sideways, before swaying to the other side next. 

Jensen gripped his control vane tightly and a little panicked. “What are you doing? We aren’t level anymore.” The instruments were showing they were anything but. He was near hysteria. God…I want out of here…right now. 

But then Tom explained. “I need to get a feel for the control…this is no PS2 controller…but honestly…it feels close.” The first smile appeared on his lips. Jensen had to ask himself if he had gone mad, or if he really felt that sure. “Good…” Tom continued “…start pushing now…we need to get her down fast.” Tom put on the head set, and Jensen did the same. 

“Okay…LAX… Here’s Hula1-2-1. Mayday, mayday, mayday.”

“Hula 1-2-1, heavy. This is Jim Beaver, LAX. Everything alright with you? You need to prepare for touch down.”

“This is Tom Welling speaking. Our co-pilot is out of commission, and we need support. Next to me is agent Jensen Ackles, and we need to bring this bird down as fast as possible.” They had gone into their descent already. 

“Sir, have you any experience piloting a jet aircraft?” Beaver asked. 

Tom chanced a look at Jensen, who was suspiciously quiet. “Uhm…yeah…I’ve got some experience.” He lied hesitantly. 

“Then we’re all thankful to have you, sir. What squadron were you with?” That one shut Tom up. Jensen, realizing he was a really bad liar, jumped in. 

“LAX…this is agent Jensen Ackles. We’ve not got much time left. There are casualties aboard who need help urgently. Can we just get it over with? Mister Welling is perfectly able to land the plane.” The look he threw Tom made the other man cringe a little. 

“Okay, Hula 1-2-1…sorry.”

“Good…then please give me my VOR numbers and my approach vectors.”

“Coming…” Beaver answered and went back to business. 

Jensen, next to Tom, shook his head slowly. “I just hope you know what you’re doing here, because I don’t think I’ll be any help,” he said quietly. 

“I do, man…and you trust me…That’s more than enough.” Tom answered, before settling the headset mike back in front of his lips. “LAX tower, this is Hula 1-2-1. Requesting clearance for landing. Please advise which runway.”

“Hula 1-2-1 heavy. We’re in the process of clearing all the runways. But you’ve got a strong tailwind. Advise, come around and use runway 2-4-left.” They could see the airport now in the distance. 

“Negative tower. I can’t do that. I don’t have time for westbound orientation. As Agent Ackles told you already. We’ve a lot of injured passengers here, who need help immediately.” 

“If you try to land west to east you’ll come in too fast to control.” Jim Beaver warned. 

“Well, then I suggest you speed up clearing the rest of the runways, ‘cause we’re coming in for landing now.” Tom now opened the microphone for the plane’s speaker system. “All right, brace yourself guys. This is it. We are going down now.” He extended the landing gear. “Here we go.”

The touch down was rocky. The plane jumped and bobbed on the runway, and the passengers were soundly rattled, but then they were on the ground, racing for the end of the runway.

“Brakes…BRAKES, Tom!” Jensen screamed, as he realized they weren’t slowing down. His feet were already down as far as possible on the brakes, but Tom reacted again, pressing the brakes down forcefully too. 

“Damnit to hell, that’s not in the game…” The man cursed, surprisingly. 

Jensen was flabbergasted. “…but the crashing part is in there…isn’t it?”

“That’s what ‘reset’ is for.”

“But we don’t have a ‘reset’ button.” Jensen scowled before he realized where they were going. “OH shit…left…” 

They were slowing but there wasn’t enough runway left. “Turn left…turn the fucking plane LEFT, Tom!” They finally came to a halt not far from one of the hangars. Jensen had no idea how long they’d stood there before he started breathing again. 

From the side came Tom’s loud “Whoo!...” 

Jensen couldn’t help but fall in. “Whoo, whoo…we made it…we damn made it. All glory to the play station.”

“Yeah…fucking yeah.” A broad smile showed up on his face. 

Jensen reached over and pulled him in a hug. “Well done…damn well done, man.”

“Yeah….except for the brakes…should put that in the game, really!” Tom declared. That made them laugh, and the tension which had held Jensen in a tight grip from the beginning of this mission, slowly started to dissipate.

They heard the cheering from the passenger area when they got up from the seats to leave the cockpit, carefully carrying Chad with them, and laying him down on a row of seats in the passenger area. 

Mike was on them instantly, falling around both their necks at the same time. “God, you are my heroes.” Tom blushed furiously; Jensen just patted Mike’s back as Jared pulled him away into his arms.

“We did it…you really were right…we did it. Thanks, Jen.” Jensen just let himself fall in the comfort of his embrace for a moment. 

 

Outside, sirens were blaring. Police cars, airport security and paramedics were racing in, together with the cars from the FBI. The flight attendants prepared for the emergency exit, the air chute was falling out and inflating. Mike, Kristin and Allison were busy helping the passengers, while Jensen overlooked the crowd outside from a window. He and Jared would be the last leaving the plane. Jared was still upstairs, waiting. 

Jensen saw the helicopter with Chris, SAC Ferris, and a man he didn’t recognize, land. He was relieved, it meant the anti-venom was there, and the people bitten could be saved. 

Tom was one of the first exiting the plane. He held Dean in his arms, as he was the worst off. The boy was unconscious now, and Sam was following them without a second’s hesitation down the chute, a piece of paper tightly clasped in his hands. Passengers supporting Jeff, Chad, and an unconscious woman were the next, before other passengers made their way down. 

 

Tom made his way directly over to the paramedics, Sam and Katie on his heels.

“I need help; he lost consciousness not so long ago.” Dean was placed on a gurney, an oxygen mask on his face yet again. 

Dr. Lindberg was already approaching with the case of anti-venom in his arms. “Did anybody see the snake that bit this boy?” he asked.

Katie held on to Sam’s shoulder. “Show him, sweetie. It’s okay.” 

Sam held out the picture he had drawn of the snake he’d seen. “I couldn’t find the snake that bit him. So I drew a picture.”

Dr. Lindberg took a look. “So what is it?...Ah…it’s a Cobra, like in Indiana Jones.” Sam nodded vigorously. The Doc told the paramedics what kind of anti-venom Dean needed, had it drawn up, and injected it himself. Then he moved on to the next victims. Chad, Jeff and a young woman were the worst ones. Jeff was lucky the symptoms of the bite he’d had on his leg were typical for just one species, and Chad was lucky that Mike had thought to take a picture of the snake he had killed in the cockpit. 

The young woman, Mary, was saved by her friend travelling with her. She was able to identify the snake that had bitten Mary. 

Mike showed up next to Tom as the paramedics loaded Dean into the ambulance, one of them lifting Sam in too, while a woman with a tear strained face climbed in by herself. Obviously their mother had arrived.

“He’ll make it. He’s a strong little guy.” Mike uttered, trying to convince himself of that statement. He felt Tom look at him. There was an infinite pause. At least Mike got that impression. 

“How about dinner?” The dark haired man blurted out, blushing furiously at his own boldness. Mike sent him his most brilliant smile, his heart doing a little tap dance in his chest.

“I would love to.”

“So…then I can have your phone number?” Still grinning Mike dictated it from memory, when Tom had pulled his phone from a pocket and turned it on. 

 

When the last passengers had left the plane, Jensen got up from his place at the window and called to Jared. 

Jared came down the stairs from first class slowly, looking at him. “So this is it? We made it?” he asked, stating the obvious.

“Yeah, we did…Thank you, Jay…despite what I said before, I couldn’t have done it without your help.” Jensen admitted now, looking at his feet.

Jared grinned, “It’s nothing new that you’re helpless without me…” He joked. It was an old joke, an intimate one. Jensen smiled softly, but didn’t look up. “My request still stands,” Jared continued. “I want to talk to you, and I won’t let you get out of it easily.”

“Nothing new there too…” Jensen answered, finally meeting Jared’s eyes. 

“Say yes, please!” Jared turned on the puppy dog eyes full force, putting on his most pleading face. It cut through Jensen’s heart. He still wasn’t sure that Jared had really meant what he’d said, not until he’d had the time to work out the horror of the last twenty-four hours in his mind.

He didn’t give a straight answer, instead he changed the topic. “I’d say for now we put that asshole into prison who started this whole mess.”

Jared’s face became serious again. “Jen, I won’t leave here before I have an answer,” he declared, unrelenting. 

A quiet, personal chuckle was his answer, before Jensen said “You’ll never change, will you?”

“NO…at least not in that department.” The recent events had changed a lot about Jared, but his stubbornness would never go away.

Jensen’s expression softened. “Okay…we’ll talk.” The smile spreading over Jared’s face made him want to forget almost everything. He wanted nothing so much as to make right what had gone wrong between them, but he knew Jared would need time to calm down first. “And now get out of here.” 

Smiling, Jared turned to the exit. He was almost outside when a snake came from out of nowhere, striking at his chest. Groaning, he almost fell out of the exit before his hands found hold. Jensen reacted instinctively. He had his gun out in an instant, and aimed at the snake that had its’ fangs deep in the material of Jared’s shirt. 

And then he realized what he was about to do. I’m gonna shoot him. Horror dawned in his mind, but he knew the snake had to go to save Jared’s life, and so he fired.

The impact threw Jared out of the exit onto the chute. FBI agents ran over as he slid down. Chris was one of them.

“Damn!” he cursed, “Are you all right?” 

Jared groaned. “…can’t breathe…”

“Come on, get up. It’ll help.” Chris pulled him up. He was a little sluggish and was breathing heavily, but he could still curse.

“Fucking hell, that stings…” Chris ripped off the shirt and smiled at the bullet-proof vest underneath; two bullets in the centre of it, where Jared’s heart was luckily still beating. “Thank God it worked.” He turned his head up to the plane’s exit. 

Jensen still stood there, pale and clearly close to panic.

“Ashmore…Durance, get the witness out of here,” he called over to the members of their team, turning to the plane. Jensen had disappeared from the exit now. 

Erica and Aaron took Jared from Chris and two other FBI agents. The place was swarming with them now.

“Hi, Jay, good to see you again” Erica greeted, still remembering him from the time he’d been with Jensen. “Come on, let’s get you out of this chaos and to the precinct.” Only now did Jared realized Jensen hadn’t followed him down. Remembering the horror in his face when he’d had to shoot the snake embedded on his chest, he turned to the plane, but Jensen was nowhere to be seen. 

“Where’s Jensen?” 

“He’ll be along soon; Chris has gone to get him. Come on, Jay.” They led him away, and no matter how long Jared stared at the plane he’d been through hell in, Jensen didn’t appear.

 

“You okay, buddy?” 

Chris had finally found a way to get on the plane. He found Jensen sitting next to the exit, a paper bag pressed over his nose and mouth, no doubt to stop the hyperventilating.

“I can’t do this anymore. I…I just can’t take this…it’s…it’s too much,” he mumbled into the paper bag. 

Chris fell down to the ground next to him. “I kinda thought you’d say something like that.” He wasn’t surprised in the slightest.


	10. Epilogue

Six months later

When Jared woke up, the bed next to him was empty. Looking out of the window, and realizing it wasn’t even really morning, he rolled onto his stomach, pressing his face into the pillow, willing himself back to sleep, but it didn’t work. 

He’d made a habit of hating to sleep alone in the last few weeks. Getting up, he put on some boxers and wandered through the quiet house, knowing well where he’d find his absent lover. Reaching the study, he had to smile at the sight that greeted him. 

There he was, deeply engrossed in marking papers, his Jensen. 

 

The events back in LA six month ago were kind of a blur for Jared, overshadowed by the fact Jensen hadn’t shown up to see him. He had been one of the most important witnesses in the case against Frederic Lehne, next to Nicky Aycox, and the outcome had been clear from the start. Lehne would get a death sentence for multiple counts of murder and attempted murder, while the murder of Sterling K. Brown had the highest priority, what with Lehne doing it himself, and Jared witnessing it. 

He wasn’t directly in witness protection, considering Lehne’s empire was falling apart with its’ boss in prison, but the FBI had blurred his tracks anyway after he left LA, heading back to his family in San Antonio for a while. 

Hawaii had lost its appeal for Jared, so had the triathlon. Everything had, once he’d realized Jensen was avoiding him on purpose. From Chris, he knew that Jensen had retired from field work. Morgan, the bastard, had told him Jensen was on an extended vacation baby sat Jared at the safe house he’d stayed in for a while, but he’d said something else too. Something that had made Jared think.

…So he put you off! And what? Are you really surprised? You should probably try to see it his way for once. He dealt with life and death situations on regular basis for years, and he knows what it does to the mind. It makes you desperate. You want to cling to everything that’s life for you…The problem is, when the rush is over, you often see the whole situation from an entirely different point of view, and no longer understand what made you do or say some things. It’s the fear…and there’s one thing you can’t deny about that flight…everyone up there was scared out of their minds, you included…so stop playing the jilted lover because he didn’t believe you every word you said…

It had hit Jared hard to realize that Jensen obviously hadn’t believed his words, and for a while he had been angry and ready to give up, thinking about the things Morgan had said. 

The problem was, it still hurt, and nothing had changed for him. The old resentments were gone, and while Jared’s mind probably had been clouded by fear on the plane, what he couldn’t believe was that Jensen’s had as well.

What he’d said in the elevator had been the truth, and the longer Jared thought about it, the more convinced he’d been, Jensen really was a stupid idiot, staying away for Jared’s sake. He’d always been that way. It was a big problem in his job too, the fact that he sacrificed himself for the sake of others. The logical answer, in his opinion, was that Jensen had still loved him then, and judging by his reactions to their various encounters on the plane, he probably still did so. 

However, he hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Jensen in LA, and no one would help him, not even Chris. He knew he hadn’t deserved help from the friends he’d left behind with Jensen, but he had at least thought they would help him, if only for Jensen’s sake. 

He’d been wrong, and when he’d left LA for San Antonio, he’d almost lost hope. 

The call had come when Jared had resigned himself to getting over Jensen, for good this time. Ten hours later, his cab from Dulles International Airport had stopped in front of the small country house Jensen now lived in. It was in a small town called Stafford, just about twenty miles from Quantico, where he now worked at the FBI academy. 

There were two things that Jared knew for sure when he exited the cab; Jensen evidently couldn’t live without that crazy assed job of his, even if he was out of fieldwork, and he couldn’t live without Jensen, or rather, he didn’t want to, not if he got his way.

And they had finally talked then, really talked. Jared had planned on doing something else, but Jensen hadn’t budged from his decision. Jared had slept in the guestroom, and Jensen had avoided any intimate contact, even kissing. Jared had needed a while to realize just why.

There had still been enough discrepancies between them, and the fact that they both had lived their own lives for years now hadn’t made it easier. Jared wasn’t the boy he’d been when he’d run off anymore. He had his own, even more stubborn, personality, and was accustomed to deciding things for himself. 

Jensen, on the other hand, had stopped making compromises when it came to his own wellbeing. It was obvious the relationship with Morgan had left its’ marks behind, but it wasn’t just that. Jensen knew what we wanted from life, his job belonged in there, and he even admitted Jared was still one of the things he wanted in his life, but not at any cost. 

In the ten days Jared had stayed in Stafford, he’d started to notice a lot. He may have been a stubborn fool in the past, but on the flight from Hawaii, something really had changed. He’d stopped drifting through life, and started wanting something, and he was the flexible one at the moment, whereas Jensen wasn’t.

They were at the same point they’d been at years ago, when Jared had finished college and followed Jensen to LA. 

This had been the point that had made Jensen more than just wary, and Jared had figured out he was on some kind of probation, but unlike in the past, he hadn’t thrown a fit. He’d held back and thought, and realized he really could be a stupid brat. 

You should probably try to see it his way for once. Morgan came to his mind again, and seeing it from Jensen’s point of view, the whole thing really hurt, because Jensen had never pressured him to do something. He’d always tried to find a suitable solution, and made compromises when he was able too. 

Jared had been pissed, even enraged and rightfully hurt, when it hadn’t worked out any longer because of his job. He had just left and never given Jensen a chance to talk. He hadn’t even listened to one of his voice mails, although there had been so many. 

Jensen had been left behind, alone, without any chance to apologize, or to talk. He knew only too well by now what it’d done to him. Chris, Steve, and even Erica, had been very clear about that, especially because of the fact Jensen had made the failure of their relationship his fault alone, and had always expressed his understanding for Jared’s behaviour. It left him with no doubts as to why they hadn’t helped him to get in touch with Jensen. Everyone, including Jensen, just feared he would hurt him again when things started to get tough and Jared decided to run again. 

It hadn’t been easy for Jared to come to the crux of the matter. It had hurt him, but on the other hand, he really had done nothing to prove those facts wrong. 

In the end, it had been the only decision. It had been obvious Jensen was open to all suggestions. Jared had two possibilities; taking the easy way, finding closure and leaving, or winning Jensen, with all the consequences. It hadn’t been difficult, because one fact Jared had established already on the plane; he wanted Jensen, and he was ready to work for it. 

When he’d left after the ten days, he’d simply stated he would need a few weeks to finish some business at home and with school, but he could be back within a month, if Jensen wanted him. Once again, Jared had been ready to leave everything behind; although this time not to run away, but to start over. The following kiss had almost made Jared miss his flight home. 

He had been back within three weeks. His parents had driven him up with the few things he owned, and a shiny new job he could do mostly from home. The job surprised Jared the most sometimes, even if he had known Tom Welling was a good guy.

Tom had called him with the offer when details of Jared’s life, containing the information that he’d majored in software engineering, made it to the media because of his role in the Lehne case. Tom’s offer of working with him on his new game ‘Snakes on a plane’ had instantly awoken his interest. He had been there. He knew what Tom wanted. After a short probation, he’d gotten the job, and the opportunity to work from home was an extra bonus.

But what still shocked him the most was the fact that after Jared’s relocation, he and Jensen had settled in as if it never had been over, and Jared had not once regretted his decision, except probably sometimes, when he woke up alone in bed at dawn on a weekend. 

 

And here he was, watching Jensen work Saturday morning around 6am. When he laid the paper he was working on aside and took off his glasses to rub his eyes, Jared decided it was enough. He knew Jensen sometimes had problems sleeping, and considering he had worked nights for years, that wasn’t surprising, but it was obvious his lover could do with a few more hours of sleep today. Jared had to wonder how long he’d been up already as he entered the study.

“I would say that’s enough for now,” he stated, pressing a soft kiss on Jensen’s forehead and starting to massage the tensed muscles of his neck. 

Jensen leaned into his touch. “Morning...hope I didn’t wake you?”

“You always wake me in the end if you leave me alone. When did you get up?” 

“It’s been a while now.”

“I can imagine. You ready to come back?” Jared replaced his hand on Jensen’s neck with his lips. 

Jensen tilted his head to give him better access. “If you ask me like this, I can probably be persuaded…”

“Oh…I can be very persuasive…” Jared pulled Jensen from the chair. “Come on…let me show you…”

“I just need…” Jensen tried to reach his laptop, but Jared knew better than that. 

“No you don’t…” he pushed the lid of the laptop down to send it into standby. There was something else he had realized from Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s taunting ramblings at the safe house. With the right incentive, Jensen could be persuaded to do almost anything. Jared had decided quickly he’d be careful with this kind of manipulation, but sometimes it was just necessary, especially when Jensen held on to his work like a pit-bull. 

The work problem still existed. It wasn’t as obvious as in the past, for the simple fact Jensen had a regular work schedule now, but he still liked to overdo it. They’d already had their confrontations about it, and interestingly, it worked both ways now, because Jared’s job as software developer for Welling Entertainment Group captivated his attention completely sometimes, and it was Jensen dragging Jared away from his computer. 

They’d started to get accustomed to it, and more often than not, the distraction got pleasantly interesting, and right now Jared was very eager to get Jensen distracted from his work. 

“Jared, I…” Jensen tried to protest, but Jared gave him no chance.

“No, baby…no chance. You left me alone, and now I want compensation.” He shoved Jensen from the study and manhandled him back to the bedroom, his hands everywhere, and Jensen’s pyjama pants were gone faster than he could make any objections. Jensen was naked by the time Jared pushed him into bed again. “Hmmm…I’m so angry at you that you left me alone again…” he murmured, his hands caressing warm, soft skin, and his lips seeking Jensen’s nipples, biting down hard. A low groan was his reward, that, and Jensen’s erection pressing against his hip. “Your punishment will be long and painful…” Jared threatened, catching Jensen’s hands and stopping them touching him.

“Please…let me…” Jensen growled low.

“No” Jared just stated, holding him tight with one hand, the other sliding lower and lower, aiming for Jensen’s erection. Jensen was writhing impatiently, seeking friction for his arousal. He was panting hard already. Jared knew only well what effect it had on Jensen when he took control. 

“You like this, don’t you? Sometimes I think you do this on purpose.” He didn’t aim for an answer, just gripped Jensen tight and stroked up and down once, making him moan loudly. “Like that, do you? Like it when you’re at my mercy…” Jared panted, licking and biting Jensen’s nipples with vigour, and torturing him with occasional hard strokes, until he started begging, legs spread wide already, thrusting up as much as he could with Jared’s weight pressing him down. 

“Please…I need…let me touch you…want more.” Jared chuckled darkly, letting go of Jensen and rubbing himself against him forcefully. He so wanted to take it further, but he needed to draw it out, just for the sake of punishment. 

Gripping Jensen’s hands with both his own now and holding them next to his body, he slid lower, leaving a trail of hot, wet kisses on Jensen’s chest and stomach before he reached his goal. Teasingly, he started lapping at Jensen’s erection and making him whine. Jensen started cursing unintelligibly, and strained against Jared’s grip on his hands, his body shaking and curving into his touch.

Overwhelmed by his own need, he took Jensen between his lips, opened his throat and slid down as far as he could, sucking hard. Jensen stilled, his body tight as a bowstring, his breath harsh. Another up and down and he was about to come, but Jared was merciless, and pulled free, throwing him an evil smirk.

“Not so fast, baby, I’m not done with you yet…”

“Jay…please…I want…I need…”

“What do you need?”

“You…in me…right now. Please…” The moment Jared let go of Jensen’s hands, he felt himself gripped tightly by the hair and pulled upwards. Their lips crashed together, and Jensen’s tongue plundered his mouth, his hands still in his hair. 

Jared felt for lube and condoms in the nightstand. Suddenly desperate too, he had problems finding them, all the while rutting their erections together in an unyielding rhythm, driving them once more close to the point of no return, before distancing himself hissing. “God, you are so fucking hot like this…” he’d found what he sought, and placed it on the bed next to them, latching his lips to Jensen’s throat and sucking hard.

“Please, please, please, please…” Jensen started like a mantra, and rolled his hips against Jared’s tight hold, driving him mad. In a hurry, he uncapped the lube and spread it on his fingers, seeking Jensen’s entrance and pushing in with certain force, his long finger hitting home instantly. Jensen stiffened and gasped, then pushed down on his finger. “…more…” Jared was glad to obey this time, thrusting in another finger, loosening Jensen quickly but thoroughly. “…enough…come on…” 

“God…even as a bottom, you’re a pushy bastard. You don’t deserve this, you know that…” It was an empty threat. Jared sat up, pulling the condom on, and spreading a good amount of lube over himself, Jensen grinning like the cat that got the canary. 

The grin disappeared the moment Jared pulled his legs around his hips, lined up, and pushed in with one smooth thrust. Jensen’s hands gripped the headboard, his body curved from the bed, and he led out a long, hoarse moan. Jared started moving, angling just right so he would hit Jensen’s sweet spot with each thrust. He was babbling again and thrashing his head left and right. The sight alone could drive Jared to the edge, and the tight heat of Jensen’s body engulfing him made it almost impossible to hold back, but he had to. He wanted to draw it out for as long as possible. 

When he felt Jensen’s body tighten once more, he forcefully pulled him up from the bed, so he was straddling Jared’s thighs, impaling himself on Jared and driving him even deeper. Jensen’s eyes were cloudy as his arms slid around Jared’s neck, and he started rolling his hips in the same rhythm as Jared thrust up into him. A few more thrusts, and he was coming hotly between them, his body convulsing and driving Jared over the edge too. 

Jared arms slid around Jensen’s slack body the moment he had control back, holding him tight. “I love you…I really do…” he panted against his skin, feeling Jensen’s head turn on his shoulder, and his lips kissing his sweat slick skin.

“Love you too…never stopped…” he whispered, snuggling closer into Jared’s embrace. Grinning, Jared slid down on the bed, struggling to get them comfortable and angling for the comforter to keep them warm. By the time he was finally content with their position, Jensen was sound asleep in his arms, his soft breath caressing the skin of his shoulder. Jared smiled softly. It couldn’t be any better. He had what he wanted. 

 

fin

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoied the read.


End file.
